It Was Friday Night
by coltostallion
Summary: Cloud just wants to get the key so he can close up the campus coffee shop he works at, TOO BAD! AU. ZakCloud. Vampires. Zak gets a warning all his own.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own a copy of FFVII, but not the characters or rights. Tear. 

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It was Friday night.

"An iced frappe," A kid demanded, leaning on the counter. "A pumpkin one, with coconut." He pointed at the menu as if to further elaborate. Cloud didn't need elaboration. It was his freaking job to make coffee for punk ass college kids. He had the menu down pat.

'A pumpkin one with coconut,' Cloud thought dully, pouring milk into a machine. "Right. Coconut." He mumbled, ducking under the counter to fish for the bag of shredded coconut.

"And pumpkin." The kid reminded annoyingly, tapping his fingernails on the counter and watching Cloud closely. Like he was going to slip something into his coffee. It was tempting.

Cloud's stared mindlessly at the clock as the milk frothed noisily, steaming. Nine fifty. Ten more minutes and he was free. He just hoped some bastard didn't come in at nine fifty nine to order ten cups of something complicated.

The frothing machine made a loud, clunking noise, indicating it was done. Cloud stared at it for a moment.

"Are you gonna make my coffee or are you gonna stare at it all day?" The kid behind the counter taunted, making Cloud want to shove his face into the blender and press 'smoothie'.

"Here's your coffee." Cloud mumbled, pressing the cup across the counter.

The guy stared at his coffee, nonplussed. "Uh, dude. Are you retarded?" 

"Excuse me?" Cloud wasn't retarded, just preoccupied.

The guy frowned. "I ordered an iced frappe. This shit is steaming, man."

Cloud looked. Hey, it was. Oops. "Sorry about that."

"Whatever. I won't be coming back here." The guy said snarkishly, grabbing his unsatisfactory coffee. He shot Cloud a dirty look. Cloud gave him a blank stare, blond hair falling in front of his face.

Cloud watched as the kid stormed from the coffee shop, coffee in hand as he made sure to slam the door. He checked the clock.

Nine fifty nine. One more minute.

-------------------------

It was Friday night one of his all time favorite parts of the week. People going to parties, or taking walks with their significant other. Aw, how sweet.

"This is nice, almost like we're married or something." Of course, no night could be perfect.

"Zak, shut up." The taller man rubbed his temples and wondered if it were possible for him to get headaches.

"What? I was just saying. I mean, what do you think we look like? Two guys, walking together, taking a little moonlit stroll," the spiky-haired brunette made little movements with his hand that the other could only assume meant strolling even though it looked like he has a twitching disorder.

"We are not 'strolling'. We are . . . 'scouting'," he corrected his companion.

"We are? But Seph, I thought you were taking me out to dinner!"

If there had been a convenient brick wall around Sephiroth would have been torn between smashing his own head or Zak's into it. Too bad it wouldn't kill him.

"We are 'scouting' for dinner," he growled between clenched teeth, "Remember?"

"Nope!"

Oh what he wouldn't give for a stake through the heart about now. Whose heart remained a question.

"Zak, please shut up. We are not going to find anyone if you keep making a ruckus."

"You're too uptight, Seph! Look! There's someone now! Dude, look at that butt! Did I ever mention how nice the invention of jeans was?" 

"Quite a lot, actually," the other grumbled, but he couldn't really complain since Zak did find dinner.

"Mm hmm," Zak nodded absently, eyes fixed on their prey. Or more accurately, their prey's butt. "I'm telling you, that is a nice a-"

"Zak. Do try to focus," he sent an emerald glare at him before starting toward the person in front of them.

----------------------------

Great. Not only did he forget the key to the coffee shop at his apartment but it was also his night to close, which meant Cloud had to walk four blocks to his apartment and four blocks back. Luckily no one really came to the shop after nine, with a few exceptions, like the iced-frappe jerk. 

Cloud quickened his pace, digging his cold hands into the pocket of his tight-fitting hooded sweatshirt. Never again would he buy tight clothes in the name of fashion. Not that he was fashionable, of course, but the salesgirl had been very persuasive, meaning she had slammed Cloud with doses of cheer and happiness until he bought something just to get away from her.

...man, how much homework did he have? Didn't he have an essay? Crap. Now he would have even less time to do it. What a crappy day.

Cloud paused in his self-pity, have a sudden feeling of... oddness. That was the only word. Like... like someone was watching him. Odd. But it was, after all, a busy neighborhood... Yeah. No biggie.

He continued walking, nervous.

No big deal.

-----------------------------

Zak hummed happily as he slid through the shadows behind their prey, ignoring Sephiroth's glare that clearly meant 'shut up'; he, for one, was enjoying the view.

"You do know it's a guy?" Seph said acidly, obviously trying to spoil his mood.

"A guy with a nice backside," Zak smiled back.

"Will you quite talking about his posterior? Every five seconds it's some random comment. We're after his blood not his butt."

"Doesn't mean I can't enjoy the view while we follow him," Zak shrugged.

"Didn't the obvious idiot who turned you tell you vampires are supposed to be asexual?"

"I am a-very-sexual vampire thank you very much," he poked his head out from behind the dumpster they were hiding behind; "I think he's heading for that apartment."

Sephiroth peered around him, "Very nice. Horrible lighting, bad condition. People are just asking to disappear."

"Hey, Seph," the only response he got was the slight shift of Sephiroth's attention toward him, "It's Friday night right?" A nod "Why do you think he's not at one of the fifty bajillion parties we saw on the way here?"

"Maybe he wasn't invited, I honestly don't care," Sephiroth said simply.

"With a-" he was cut off by Seph's quick "No more butt comments."

"I mean, he's cute enough, he should be invited to everything!"

"Not everyone is a raging homosexual like you," Sephiroth commented dryly.

"I take one look and I'm automatically gay? Can't I LOOK?"

"Not at another guy's rear-end for that long and with those comments. Nice try though, homo."

"I do believe you just made a joke!" Zak grabbed the taller man around the shoulders because he couldn't reach high enough for a proper headlock.

"You must be mistaken, now come along before we lose him," the silver-haired man stepped quickly from the shadows, leaving Zak to follow in his wake.

-----------------

Clothes. Bed sheets. Counter. Where the hell was that key? Cloud sighed loudly, throwing a pair of underwear over his shoulder, picking up a pair of jeans to search through a pocket, futile. Okay. Okay. Calm down.

Cloud sat on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands, fingers smoothing over his cheeks. Okay. If I was a key, where would I be?

Fuck. He wasn't a key. He was Cloud. He was Cloud and he was going to get fired if he didn't find that key. He cast a despairing glance at his backpack, hoping that he really didn't have that much homework. He probably did. He had no luck.

"Okay. Key." He said softly, standing to walk from his bedroom. "I...came home this morning from school. I walked to the counter." He walked to the counter. An ant scurried across its surface. He frowned at it. 

"I... I got out the toaster." He opened the cabinet, ducking as some dust flew from it. There was no key. His eyebrows creased. "Ah."

A few moments passes silently, Cloud leaning against the counter unhappily. Man, was it cold in here or was it just him? His scrubbed at the back of his neck with his hand, chewing his lip. Not like his heater worked or anything.

...Or... maybe it was because his window was open. He stared at it, suddenly aware of its presence. That was pretty weird, considering that the window was pretty impossible to open. Or maybe... maybe he sleep-walked. Yeah.

With a frown, he walked to his window and slammed it shut. Yeah. Weird.

----------------------------

"Has he ever cleaned this place?" Sephiroth frowned down at the floor as he snuck through the window while their prey was occupied frowning at something on the counter. Maybe he was crazy.

"He's a college student, cleaning is like . . . doing homework." Zak responded as he slid through the window behind him. Luckily they were talking too low for human hearing or else they would have been caught exceptionally easily.

"So, can we eat now or are you gonna stare at him more?"

"I wanna see his eyes first, with a- I mean, they should be hot. Quick, get naked and lay on his bed."

". . . what." It wasn't a question, more like a statement of I-obviously-imagined-that-because-I-didn't-think-you-had-a-death-wish.

"Er, I'll get naked and lie on the bed?"

"No one is getting naked. I'm hungry."

"Fiine."

By this time he had finished in the kitchen and was walking over to shut the window. Zak smirked and waited until he heard the low thud before grabbing the blonde by the shoulder. (Seph should be very proud of him, he had almost just walked up and grabbed his butt . . . well after considering reaching around and-)

The kid squawked.

It wasn't a scream. More like a scream's illegitimate child with a chicken and the sound cats make when they cough up hairballs.

"Hey, hot stuff," Zak whispered in his ear.

Sephiroth met the metaphysical wall that Cloud was so fond of. The boy was supposed to be scared for his life not his virginity!

"You finish up, I'm going to go find a quiet place with a nice view to quietly commit suicide," he murmured through the headache he just knew was developing.

+

A/N: I hope you liked it, I'm new to this whole RP thing so I'm relying on Voodoodoll's guidance. Sorry if anything seems too OOC . . . I thought they were ok but then again I'm biased. Tell us what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to our reviewers darkmoon1202, Seven Positions, marionette kadaj, lilalou, The Great Susinko and 1wngdngl! You rock our socks!

Disclaimer: We dun own FFVII le tear

"SHIT!"

Cloud wasn't normally big on cursing, but he really couldn't help it.

He also couldn't help the sudden flailing reflex that came on suddenly, making his arms and leg swing behind him clumsily, in some sort of auto self-defense. Oh my god, a burglar, oh my god, I'm going to die. This was not how he wanted to die. Shit!

It was with the finesse of a panicked man that Cloud whipped around.

Shit. Okay. Why wasn't there anyone there? There was someone there. They had just whispered something into his ear. He wasn't crazy, was he? Was he so lonely he was imagining burglars coming into his apartment to molest him?

"Is anybody there?" Cloud was very aware how stupid he sounded, standing clench-fisted in his kitchen, wide-eyed and scared. He cleared his throat, adopting a more controlled tone. "I... I know you're there. Come out." Or don't, you know, you can leave quietly.

Cloud tensed, eyes searching for any kind of movement. A few ants stared dolefully from his counter. He regarded them with distaste.

"I...must be going insane." He told them quietly, unclenching his hands. He blew a stray wisp of hair from his eyes, shaking his head slightly. What had he been doing? Looking for a key?

"I'll check the bedroom again," He directed aloud, shoving his hands into his hoody pocket, willing the goose bumps on his arms to fade. That was creepy, imaginary or not.

...Hey, wait. Had he left his door shut? Cloud frowned and wrapped his hands around the handle, the goose bumps coming back in full force. He closed his eyes and took a breath. Grow some balls, man. It's just a bedroom, right? He opened the door.

---------------

Zak had gleefully retreated to where Sephiroth was contemplating death in the bedroom when his prey had spun.

"Is he dead yet?" Sephiroth turned from the window.

"Nope, but he has the most GORGEOUS blue eyes!" he cooed.

". . . "The other turned back to the window, "I am ignoring you until he is dead."

"Mm-kay!" Zak heard footsteps coming toward their oh-so-secret hideout.

"Duck in the closet," Sephiroth hissed.

Zak blinked, peering into the closet, "No there's not, but more importantly, the kid is-" A black gloved hand shoved him from behind and he fell into the tangle of a college students closet.

The door was obviously as in need of repair as the rest of the place since it sounded like a herd of mice being run over by a lawn mower . . . there was a weird image. Zak smiled happily to himself.

The footsteps hesitated at the open door before entering, leaving the door open for a quick escape behind.

"What's your plan now?" Sephiroth asked from among . . . was that a blue dress? Hot . . . "Zak?"

"Huh? Oh, right! Um . . . stay here!" He could practically feel his companion glower as he shifted to the front of the closet and cracked the door.

'Please undress please undress please undress' Zak repeated mentally as he watched the blonde peer about the room. Sadly though, the boy seemed to have no intention of getting ready for bed. Oh well. Might as well make his move!

This time there was no nice hand-on-the-shoulder crap. If the kid was about to die he might as well enjoy his last moments as much as Zak himself was.

-------------------

The first thought Cloud had was 'Hey, I'm not insane' and that there was, in fact, an invader in his home. That really didn't explain the whole kitchen episode, but he allowed his brain the smooth over the less-than-sane bits. The second thought he had was that burglars normally didn't stand close to you and put their hands on your hips, spread-fingered and loose- burglars usually didn't smell like... smell like something good and heady and-

Then Cloud's survival instincts kicked in. He screamed.

"Hey, calm down."

Calm. Calm was not an option in Cloud's mind. Panicking, flailing, screaming and (if all else flailed) tackling his home invader presided at the top of his list as 'Good Things to Do in this Situation'.

...but he couldn't do any of them. Oh, shit, he was like, really unable to move. Had... when had the guy gotten so close? A lock of black hair shifted across his neck, a few spiky locks straying into his frozen range of vision. Had this guy poisoned him? Like, with a dart gun? When he wasn't looking?

Because he couldn't move. And he wanted to get away. And moving was generally required to escape.

"Let go of me," He managed, a large chill running through his body. His leg twitched involuntarily and a hand squeezed, fingers digging teasingly into his stomach. Oh god, he was too young to die. He was just a freshman, he hadn't really done anything bad, he was just a kid with anti-social tendencies- the kind you see on the news, murdered and dumped in a forest. Some kid no one would miss.

A hand strayed a bit lower on his side. Cloud started to seriously freak out, breathing coming quick. He was totally immobile now, chest constricting and tight. "Please!"

----------

This was possible the most enjoyable thing the spiky-haired vampire had done in, he paused a moment to think. A long time. Like, a couple decades or something. The blonde tensed, like he was about to tackle him to the ground and- focus. FOCUS.

"Calm down," he murmured, putting all that special vampiric charm into his words. If the kid didn't want to play nice at least he wouldn't be able to move. Vampires had that skill, Zak himself had no idea how or why or any of that scientific mumbo jumbo, all he knew was it existed and it helped get you in nice and close with hot humans without all the screaming, mace and tasers that were usually involved. He'd been tased once. It hadn't done as much to him as it would a human, but it had hurt, and he'd had this weird little itch for the next five minutes which was really annoying. All in all, tasers were to be avoided.

"Let go of me," Zak felt the lithe body shiver under his hands and tightened his fingers unconsciously. If he'd been alive his heart would have been a hummingbird against his ribs and kid in front of him would know very exactly how Zak felt. Luckily, though, vampires have more control than that. Not much, but more. Thus, he could slide his hands farther down his prey's side without moaning.

He was doing a very good job keeping on track, Sephiroth shouldn't be so melodramatic. He hadn't even copped a- oh wait, never mind, that definitely counted as a feel . . . it felt as good as it looked.

Cloud squeezed his eyes shut, willing strength into his limbs. If he could do anything, even just a weak kick or something, anything would be better than just standing there and letting himself be molested. What he wouldn't give for the body control to land a kick in this guy's crotch-

But he couldn't move, so that was all beside the point.

A puff of warm air on his neck made Cloud gasp jerked violently out of his thoughts. His voice was frozen somewhere in his throat, his mouth dry. His stomach jumped violently as he felt hands travel from his hips to . . . not his hips- oh, god, he wasn't going to be killed. He was going to be raped. Then killed, maybe. And he was too much of a freaking wimp to even protect himself…

A loud slam of a car door from underneath Cloud's bedroom window punctuated a warm, slick feeling on his neck. Cloud's knee jerked from under him, almost toppling him forward but for the man behind him, gripping him.

"Steady there!" How the hell could this guy sound cheerful! Here Cloud was having an emotional crisis while his attacker was blatantly happy. Cloud would have snorted, but he wasn't exactly finding the situation funny. He was quickly gathered back up against the man behind him, eyes still screwed shut. His hands tingled slightly as his arms were rubbed- he was almost able to move them, almost. He concentrated on the feeling, urging his mind to focus. If he could move he could escape…

"You're not thinking of going anywhere now, are you?" And there it was again, making Cloud want to punch a hole in the guy's face.

"Yeah," Cloud managed to grit, body shuddering as touches returned to his stomach, dipping teasingly towards his navel. "I am. Let go of me and I'll be on my way."

--------------

"No can do, babe!" Zak smiled, humming under his breath (and luckily under the boy's hearing).

"Please? I . . . I . . ." the vampire moved his head from where it was half nuzzling his prey's hair, turning the blonde around with every intention of- Oh. Oh no. There was no way this was happening.

Most people, when attacked by a creature they believed only to exist in nightmares, screamed, kicked and fought. This was a good thing for Zak, for if everyone did what this boy was doing Zak would go hungry.

Big blue eyes stared up at in, almost to the point of tears in that men-don't-cry-I-have-something-in-my-eye sort of way and just . . . _begging._

AW! He restrained himself from forcibly cuddling the poor kid in front of him. SO CUTE! There was no way he could kill something that cute! It would be like if you hamburger looked up at you with big cow eyes and said it had a mommy it wanted to see again. Craap.

"What's your name?"

The kid blinked, the terror in his face fading to confused anger with a hint of hunger, but he was a college student so the hunger was to be expected and discounted as far as expressions went. Teenagers.

"So you can brag about me by name after you rape me?"

"Huh? Rape you? No way!" That had never been one of his intentions. A good feel maybe, but nothing too much more than that, the kid didn't look like he believed him though. Of course the whole breaking into his house and feeling him up thing might not have made for the best of terms, but still! He was being honest here! "I promise, kid, I . . . uh . . . No harm will come to you while I can prevent it. I, um . . . swear on my blood."

A blood oath was the strongest promise a vampire could make. If they ever broke the promise every vampire in the world would be charged with making sure the oath breaker had nothing to eat, even the blood of animals, until they died a slow, painful death by starvation.

When Zak had first heard of this he had wanted to see with such enthusiasm that he had taken to following around one vampire or another just in case they broke a blood oath. For this reason he had only followed those who were less-than-friendly and not well loved among their kin. Which was how he'd met Seph, but that's another story.

-----------

Blood? What? Cloud wasn't exactly comforted by the words of the crazy man, especially the whole 'I won't let you come to harm' part. Probably just words meant to bring down his guard before he was slaughtered or something- either way Cloud wasn't falling for that, and now he was able to move a bit more. Slowly, gaining confidence, he swung his arm subtly. Bingo.

"I don't believe you," Cloud hissed, eyes stinging from the adrenaline running through him, his emotions running tense throughout his body. "I think you want to do me harm." With that he swung his arm forward, hard, clenched fist connecting solidly with the chest of the man in front of him, violet eyes going wide with surprise.

Cloud didn't miss a beat. He turned heel and ran, his body stiff and heavy but fast with fear. His knee connected hard with his kitchen counter as he ran past- he saw red, briefly, but kept going, skidding into his living room and running into his front door hard.

"Shitshitshit," He muttered, hand fumbling sweatily with the handle, slick and slow and god, he was wasting time. He couldn't hear his attacker, couldn't see him, but for some reason that made him more nervous.

A breath on his earlobe making him shout. "Going somewhere, babe?"

And then Cloud had the door open, the presence at his back making his retreat down the stairs more of a stumbling fall than anything, his breaths escaping in what sounded like rough sobs. He was being followed, he knew even though he couldn't hear the footsteps- flashes of silver and black haunted the corner of his vision at every turn he made, his trip down the stairs seeming to take an eternity even though he was sprinting down them three by three.

"Cloud!"

"Leave me alone!" Oh, god-

A hand on his arm- Cloud shouted and twisted heavily, fist coming to meet skin, the sound of the contact ringing heavily though the empty stairwell. Red hair billowed slightly from the impact-

"R-Reno?"

--------------------

The punch didn't hurt, but he had loosened his grip while promising not to hurt the kid. He watched the blonde run from his, colliding for a moment with the counter, Zak winced in sympathy. That had to hurt. Like a lot. Then the kid was fumbling with the door.

With another one of his super cool vampire powers (SCVP for short!) the black-haired man moved effortlessly and quietly across the room to whisper in his new friend's ear; which caused a total freak out, funny to watch but sadly involving the opening of the door finally and the kid stumbling down the stairs. Follow the leader!

It was with utter amusement that Zak watched the blonde, whose name seemed to be Cloud (cute!), sock the red-head at the bottom and he gave a quiet cheer of 'No one touches Cloud (_ohmygoshsuckacutename_) but me!'

Unfortunately, said red head was not unconscious, and Zak was forced to slip into the shadow of the stairs to watch the proceedings. Things were not going his way.

He watched for awhile, waiting until the two left before heading back into the apartment.

--------------

"Seph?"

"Is he dead?"

"About that, funny thing-" Sephiroth stepped out of the boy's bedroom, eyes stern.

"What did you do, Zackary?"

"He gave me the biggest puppy eyes ever! And his eyes are soooo blue! Like . . . the ocean . . . or the sky . . . or something else blue! And he was soooo cute!"

The silver-haired man rubbed his temple, if Zak were any kind of physical problem, he'd be a migraine. Either that or a missing limb, whichever was most annoying.

"So you let him escape?" He knew better than to yell "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" like he wanted to. He already knew the answer, Zak was no better than a human male at times; thinking either of nothing or with a part of his bodies vampires were supposed to ignore.

"Er."

He sighed, "I don't even care anymore. I think I would welcome it if the kid came back and killed us both. As long as he let me watch him kill you I could die happy."

"Aw, don't say that, Seph! We both know you'll die from apathy!"

"You do realize apathy is not a disease."

"It isn't? I thought it was in the same family as stuff like osteoporosis and asthma?"

". . . no," he shook his head, trying and failing to bring himself to care that there was someone out there who knew about them. "I don't care; let's find someone else. Preferably someone blind so we don't have a repeat of this incident."

"Sure thing!" Zak trounced out the door, Sephiroth flowed elegantly (the proper walk for one of their distinguished line) behind him.

---------------------------

"So." Reno frowned, palming his cheek with a wince. "What was that for?"

Cloud stared blankly at Reno, a sense of relief washing over him. Reno wasn't a rapist; Reno was just a poor, low-wage college student like him who happened to live in the same apartment building. Sure, he played his music too loud and was nosy as all hell but really, he hadn't deserved that.

"I'm sorry," Cloud said swiftly, bowing his head. "I… thought you were someone else." He glanced behind him, an empty staircase meeting his gaze. "I was just on my way out, actually-"

Reno grinned despite his aching cheek, eyes glinting in the poor lighting of the entranceway. Cloud sure could pack a punch. Who would have known? "Will you look at that, so am I."

Cloud frowned. "You were just coming in."

Reno shrugged this off with a careless grin. "Eh, I changed my mind. Come on, you look like you just saw a ghost. You could use a friend, right?" Dude, were Cloud's eyes glistening? Reno squinted.

"I don't need- I need to get going." Cloud said in a rushed tone, not meeting Reno's eyes. "I'll see you in class-"

"I'll come with you."

"No, really-"

"My mind's made up, no changing it now!"

Cloud made an annoyed noise, shoving past the red-head. "I don't care what you do," He murmured. "I just need to get out." Before the man showed up again, touched him like that and said things to him that made him feel so strange…

Cloud sucked in a breath of city air, relieved. He began to make a quick beeline across the street, a destination in mind. If he went back to the coffee shop he could just stay there, lock himself in until the morning. Call the police, maybe-

"Where ya headin'?"

Oh god, Reno was still there, trailing a few feet behind him, surprisingly silent until he decided to speak. Cloud looked at him in quiet resignation. "The coffee shop. Where I work."

"I've been there," Reno said offhandedly. "Isn't it closed?"

"Yeah."

"Ah. I see." Reno grinned and Cloud frowned at him, turning back around. Instantly Reno's smile was gone, his eyes switching from cheerful to catlike.

Cloud reeked of black magic.

A/N: And so the insanity continues. OOCness up the wall and back down again. Then again I suppose character is in the eye of the game player. I mean, the whole Cloud's date with Barret option (doesn't happen a lot so not really a spoiler I guess) yeah, Cloud can be gay even in the game! And if he is gay, who better to lust after than everyone's favorite now deceased SOLDIER! Plus in my personal opinion when Zak saw Cloud in the church he wouldn't have just waved he would have pounced and been like "OMG I MISSED U SOO MUCH! I LUVRZ U!" Ok, maybe that's more like if the cetra were like 'you may have one aim conversation with someone on earth' kinda like your one phonecall and all. And if I knew how to make a flash aim-type move I totally would. Wait, what am I talking about again? I kinda liked the idea of giving Zachary a weird spelling, something that justified my spelling it Zak (I'm personally a Zax fan but I kinda like the Americanization of Zak since I've scene people's name spelled such and k and x are kinda sorta maybe similar). Updates on this may be sporadic by the by. Slower during holidays and all.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Dun own

To 1wngdngl – All shall be revealed in this chapter! MWAHAHA. Ahem.

To darkmoon1202 – That shall be revealed in this chapter too!

To The Sinner of Anger – Aw! You're nice! COOKIES!

To lovova – COOKIES ALL AROUND!

Rude looked up from his book at the loud, rhythm less knocking. Reno. He put his bookmark back in place and went to the door, which opened to reveal, shock of shocks, Reno. And some other guy, but mostly Reno.

"Rude! Hey! Cloud here was just on his to the coffee shop when I remembered you had some super great coffee here!"

". . ." He opened the door wider to admit the two, but kept his mouth closed. He didn't have any super great coffee. Just the normal instant stuff and decaf since he had learned the hard way to keep the stronger stuff away from Reno.

Reno led the suspicious/annoyed looking boy who must have been Cloud into Rude's small sitting area. As the blonde walked past, the dark man felt a tingle that caused his . . . er . . . skin to stand on end? Well he tingled. Brushing it off with hopes of an explanation later he went to the kitchen to get coffee for Reno and his guest.

His apartment wasn't large by any stretch of the imagination, but it was . . . sufficient. It was the only word even Reno could come up with. There was nothing that didn't need to be there and everything was arranged to make the most of the space presented. Sufficient.

The coffee maker made a hum/trill that meant it was done.

----------------------------------

Cloud felt horribly uncomfortable as Reno all but yanked and pulled him off course; hand tight on his wrist as they took a turn away from the coffee shop.

"I swear my friend has some kick ass coffee," Reno insisted, ponytail trailing behind him cheerfully. "Best in town, I'll bet you a zillion bucks."

"I don't have a zillion bucks," Cloud stated dully, irritated. Why was he allowing Reno to drag him off? Even though he really didn't want to be alone at all, he hardly knew the guy besides a few shared classes and the fact that they shared the same apartment building. "I should really be going-"

"Nonsense. Just relax," Reno ordered easily, tugging Cloud into the alcove of what appeared to be a large stone apartment building. He lifted a long finger to press a button. Cloud stared at Reno's finger. The nail was painted black.

After a few moments a buzzing noise came from an intercom, causing Cloud to jump.

"Who is it?"

Reno grinned, pressing the button again. "Hey, Rude, it's me. I've got a friend. Put on some coffee, will ya?"

"I'll let you up."

Reno pulled the door to the building open, motioning Cloud inside. "Come on, don't be a stranger. Rude's a great guy, really. Just quiet, but don't let it get to you."

Cloud walked silently into the building, following the red-head's lead down a hallway and up a flight or two of stairs- it was hard to tell. Finally they came to a halt in from of a door, Reno's hand rising to knock on it loudly.

"Rude! Hey! Cloud here was just on his to the coffee shop when I remembered you had some super great coffee here!" Lies, lies, all lies, but Reno had to get Cloud around Rude to see if the other man felt the weird vibe too. Just to make sure, although its signature was almost unmistakable.

Reno grinned widely at Rude as the door opened, dragging a reluctant Cloud into the small apartment behind him. Rude's eyes widened almost imperceptibly behind his glasses as the blonde boy passed- ah, so he felt it too. Reno met his eyes and grinned smoothly, bringing a finger up to his lips in a 'stay quiet' signal. Like Rude was anything but quiet, but still.

"So how about that coffee?" Reno asked loudly, leading Cloud to sit on the small couch Rude owned, not able to help himself by making the boy sit down. "I told him how delicious your coffee is, you know? Better not disappoint." He winked teasingly at the larger man, smiling.

----------------------------------

He set the coffee cups down on the coffee table before taking a seat in the armchair across from the blonde, whom Reno was sprawled next to. He hadn't done anything special to the coffee, but chances were no one would notice/care.

"This coffee isn't that good."

Or not. Whatever.

"Not the point Cloud-o. The point is, you smell like vampire."

"Reno, you're an idiot."

"You do feel like dark magic," Rude put in. The chances of the kid understanding them without proof were . . . minimal to say the least, but that was the way Reno worked. Tell them, then beat them, tell them again, beat them again, explain it, give them proof, then once they believe you beat them once more for good measure.

"Vampires don't exist," the blonde glared at his coffee for no apparent reason.

This was definitely not Rude's area of expertise. He made the coffee, he provided the place for Reno to drag people, he did explain/maim. That was Reno's area.

------------------

"You're right," Reno said with a smirk, downing his coffee in one shot. He heard Rude sigh- probably because he was going to have to make more coffee. Whatever. He looked up at Cloud, eyes half-lidded and grin wide. "Vampires don't exist. That's why you smell a hell of a lot like one- one was all over you, weren't they?"

Cloud stared, alarmed. "I don't... I don't know what you're talking about." What the hell? Maybe this was a joke. Reno never seemed like such a serious guy- maybe he was picking on Cloud for a good laugh. Ha, ha. But Cloud's stomach flipped in nervousness at his words- 'one was all over you, weren't they?'

...no, it wasn't a vampire. No way. It had been a burglar, right?

Reno tapped his foot against the bare floor, cocking his head. "Are you sure? Because, you know, this could be easy on you. We're here to help more than anything, Cloud." He considered this, a finger to his chin. "Unless you're the one doing to blood sucking-"

"You're crazy." Cloud stood up, a little angry. "I barely know you and you drag me to some guy's apartment to interrogate me-"

"Lightly question!" Reno protested.

"-I'm leaving now." Cloud made a stumbling break towards the door, impeded by a hand clamped to his wrist. He growled and yanked at it, ineffective in freeing himself. Reno looked at him seriously, face close.

"We really just want to help, Cloud. You could die, man." There was no longer any underlying threat in Reno's voice, just a kind of quiet almost-concern, making Cloud's hair stand on end.

Cloud finally broke his wrist free. "I don't want it. Your help. I don't believe in fairy tales."

Reno watched as Cloud left, frowning deeply. They couldn't just let him go like that- he had been marked, marked by one of those damn bastards. He shrugged. They would have to keep an eye on him.

----------------------

"Zakarie, stop pouting," the silver haired vampire rubbed his temples. Zak had started his little pout fest right after they had eaten the night the blonde got away and hadn't stopped yet.

"I'm not pouting," the spiky haired man stuck out his lip in the I'm-so-pouting-ignore-my-stupid-remarks manner.

"You are. Find something constructive to do with your lack of energy, like leaving me alone."

Zak frowned, eyes glazing over as his brain devoted all its energy into coherent thought. Sephiroth could just see the reactors steaming and alarms screeching at the impending meltdown.

"I'm going out," That wasn't a meltdown. Sephiroth was unimpressed as ever.

"Where?"

"To find Cloud!"

". . . Excuse me?" DANGER! DANGER! MELTDOWN IN PROCESS! The many high powered reactors in his mind screeched to a halt. (This was quite unlike the instance in Zak's single wind turbine of a brain (were wind turbines capable of meltdown?), Sephiroth's brain stopped elegantly with a little twirl at the end and a poof of smoke)

"-him and then TA DA!" It was only then that the taller man realized his companion was talking, and by the time he got his thoughts under control to respond, the other was gone.

----------------

The coffee shop was thankfully empty by the time Cloud got there, meaning that no one had noticed that it had been left unattended or that the thieves were quick about their business. He swiftly latched the heavy front door shut, fingers fumbling a little with it.

Tonight. Tonight had been majorly screwed up.

He contemplated calling the police- 'Excuse me, but my apartment was broken into- no, nothing was stolen- a description? Purple eyes. Yes, purple. And I was also molested- hello? Hello?'

Yeah, that plan of attack was out of question.

Cloud sighed heavily and let himself slide down the door, his knees curling to his chest. He would just get better locks for his windows. He was probably over exaggerating things. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead to his knees, a tightness building behind his eyes. He could just sleep here tonight; hopefully get out before his boss came to open in the morning.

As he fell asleep, Cloud could have sworn he had heard something skitter in the distance, but he was too exhausted to check. Probably just the froth-machine acting up or something. Or a mouse.

-----------------------

Rude followed the redhead's directions through the dark streets.

"Left here, NO, RIGHT . . . no I was right, left,"

It took a lot of skill and mental prowess to take Reno anywhere.

"That's the place! I think . . . yeah, should be."

The black Mercedes pulled into the parking space gracefully, purring softly until the engine was turned off.

"Are you sure he's here?" Rude adjusted his sunglasses and examined the building in front of them. Typical brick college building with a dancing coffee cup neon sign that was thankfully turned off.

"Yep!" Reno took a step toward the door then stopped, "Do . . . do you feel that?"

The dark man froze, stretching his senses. The redhead had always been more sensitive to paranormal activity, but when Rude stretched his sixth sense he had no trouble locating the source of Reno's caution. A vampire. A relatively strong one and making no effort to hide its aura.

"Get behind the car," Reno hissed, ducking around so he could peek out around the bumper. Rude crouched next to him, reaching in his jacket for the specialized gun he always carried, Reno already had his ready.

-----------------

"I don't see him," Reno hissed, body pressed against the car. He glanced at Rude, eyes wide. "Damn. This sucks!"

Rude shrugged. Reno frowned. They spent a few tense moments in total silence, bodies tight up against the car, until Reno had had freaking enough. He wasn't the type to try patience, really.

"Okay, I say on the count of three we make a break for it, grab Cloud, and beat the shit out of anyone that gets in our way, blood-sucking type or not." Reno suggested in a whispered tone, breaking out a grin. He started to stand up, but was yanked back down.

"Are you crazy?" Rude was frowning, which was pretty normal. Reno shrugged.

"Sitting here with a vampire nearby is just as stupid as doing something about it," Reno reasoned; perhaps a bit too loudly seeing as Rude felt the need to cover his mouth violently. Reno bit him sourly.

"We don't know what we're up against." Rude said lowly, eyes inscrutable behind his sunglasses. Huh, Reno would never figure out why the guy wore sunglasses at night. "We should wait."

Reno 'hmph'ed and slid back down into a squat, wiping his mouth free of Rude-glove-taste. "Whatever. We'll wait. But not for long."

Rude punched him when he began to sing Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Really, the guy was just no fun.

------------

Zak was being sneaky. Super sneaky. So sneaky you would look over at him and say 'Gee, I don't see anything. If anyone is over there they sure are sneaky'.

He had gone back to Cloud's apartment, not really expecting him to be there but hoping for some clue as to where he would be.

It was your usual, trashy college apartment. There were at least five different life forms in the dirty clothes pile alone. His search turned up very little, not that he wasn't good at searching but more that Cloud wasn't good about having a social life and thus didn't have any reminders or mementos.

What he did find, though, was a small key tucked away under a half drunk cup of coffee. He thought it was a weird place for a key, but maybe it was a common human custom he'd fallen out of since his . . . departure from human society.

The key itself wasn't amazing; it had little numbers and a warning that replicating it was illegal. First thing on Zak's agenda was to replicate it. Not necessarily because he thought he would need it, but because it told him not to and he was a little off like that. So, abandoning the still trashed apartment, he skipped (not quite literally, but close) over to some hole-in-the-wall 24-hour key place. Hey, lost keys aren't subject to business hours.

He managed not to pay for his transaction by sheer force of will, literally, and returned the other key to the apartment in not-quite-the-same-but-close-enough-place he had got it. Okay, that was fun. Now what?

He scanned the room again. What was the random coffee key for? There were no other doors in the apartment and leaving the key to the front door under a coffee mug didn't make any sense. Maybe . . . a girlfriend's house? Better not be.

The only other thing of any interest Zak had found was a flyer for one of the campus coffee shop with some numbers on it, and unless Cloud's girlfriend had an M-T6-7F7-10 phone number, they were something else. Some secret code.

Maybe the headquarters for the campus mafia were there and this was the code to open up the secret door under the frappuccino machine! That HAD to be it!

With this new information Zak headed for the Jumpin' Java coffee house. Sneakily.

A/N: I think it might have been a little more confusing this chapter, I hope it wasn't too hard to figure out. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR YOUR COMMENTS!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Still no own

Kitsunedemon – Not telling yet! You'll just have to keep reading

greywings2 – ENJOY!

1wngdngl – Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they all aren't out to get you

darkmoon1202 – Hope this answers your questions and raises new ones!

lilalou – The typical vampire fic is so serious. Zak wouldn't survive in their world.

Aki – Thanks for the comment! 3

Cloud was a very light sleeper, which usually sucked pretty bad, considering he was a starving college student living in the wrong area of town. Sleeping against a hardwood door didn't really help his condition in the long run- so when he woke up for the sixtieth or so time he decided to give up on sleep- it wasn't worth it. He curled into a tight ball- you know, it wouldn't kill his boss to afford a little bit of heating for this place- at this rate the coffee was going to freeze over-

CREAAAAK.

Cloud seizured amazingly, somehow floundering to his feet after all of his limbs flailed in surprise for a few frantic moments. Oh shit, what was that! Not that he was paranoid or anything, but after the whole apartment fiasco... he didn't trust karma at the moment. At least if a burglar attacked him here he could scald his face off with boiling, frothy milk.

"Hello?" Cloud said in a wavering tone, standing unsteadily against the door, squinting into the dim lighting of the coffee shop. It wasn't that big of a place, and it was pretty obvious that no one was there. So... what was the squeak? Wood didn't make that noise unless someone stepped on it- someone heavy. Cloud fretted for a moment- what if his work was infested with huge mice? Ugh, he hated mice-

A hand, unmistakable, on his neck. Cloud screamed in a very unmanly manner, his arms going kung-fu like towards the touch, but ultimately hitting nothing. He turned, eyes wide-

Nothing was there. No one was there. Oh god, was he going crazy?

Cloud blinked, swallowing heavily. "I'm going crazy."

------------------

Zak paused as he neared the coffee house. Something didn't seem right. Maybe it was too quiet. He listened, nope defiantly not that, he could almost hear an annoying tune swimming through his head. Maybe it was too still. He watched as a paper bag, a candy wrapper and a flock of copied tests fluttered past him, the test on their bid for freedom. If they stayed the teacher would catch them and they would be locked away as evidence of foul play! Oh to fly free among the streets of the world. Perhaps catch on someone's shoe and see Paris or Barcelona. A dip in dump in Braz- Zak halted his train of thought when he realized he was thinking up lives for trash.

The dark haired man blinked and looked around him. Nothing seemed too different. It was then that he noticed the neon dancing coffee sign. Oh what he wouldn't give to put that right in front of Seph's bed, turn it on and run. His face would be priceless. Maybe he would ev-

Zak was easily distracted. Luckily, though, only when he wasn't thinking about it. He focused his mind on the task at hand. Get into coffee shop. Get Cloud. Get sign. Perfect plan.

----------------

The Vampiric aura stayed put or so long that Rude was beginning to think it was just a creepy streetlight. Then it moved. The image of a streetlight coming to suck their blood was so terrifying the darker man began to pray it was just a vampire.

"There!" Reno stopped humming something vaguely annoying and focused all his attention on the bumper. It is to be assumed that this was because he was listening and not because the bumper was in any way vampiric. That would be creepy. Imagine a bumper doing a hit and run and sucking the blood of the . . . huh? Oh! Vampire. Right.

There were no sounds, which was to be expected, but the aura did grow closer until it must be just on the other side of the car.

Rude shifted the gun in his hand. Waiting.

----------------

Zak had decided to enter through the ventilation system. Why? Because it was cool. Everyone in the movies did it and he was far cooler and sexier than any movie star. Thus, with a theme song hummed under his breath, the spiky haired vampire opened the grate at the side of the building and climbed in.

The ventilation shaft was not made for a grown man to climb through. Technically they were not made for anyone to climb through, but especially not a grown man.

"Ba du du dummm ba du da dummmmm," each syllable was matched with either a scrunch forward for the small ones or looking around a corner for the longer pieces. Zak was a lovely choreographer if he did say so himself (Which he had to since no one who wasn't under the influence of stupidity would).

The vampire crawled past the first opening into the store below because in the movies you never went through the first exit. He instead crawled to the second, punched it open as quietly as one can punch something open, swung out and skipped back along the pipe to the front of the store where he had seen a certain blonde sleeping against the door from the first grill.

--------------------

Something was tickling his neck. Cloud rolled over, letting out a disgruntled little moan, having finally been able to almost get to sleep. Sheep. He should count sheep, maybe, or-

Something. Something was on his ear. Cloud was now more awake than he wanted to be, considering most people did wake up when annoyed. He smacked at his ear, eyes squinched shut. Annoying, annoying, all he wanted to do was catch a quick catnap. Maybe it was the coffee fumes keeping him up. He lifted his hoody to cover his nose with a frown and then curled back into a ball. Man, was the ground hard... He drifted off a little, listing in and out of sleep. Urgh. He would so have dark circles. He started to count sheep. One. Two.

"Hey, babe. Wake up."

Three. Four.

"I'll give you three seconds."

Five. Six.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

Cloud freaked out, suddenly finding himself a good five feet off of the ground, hefted by what seemed to be a thick thatch of dark hair. He sputtered, sleep-stupid, and reared his head back, flailing ungracefully.

His eyes widened as he made eye contact with a pair of ridiculously bright... purple, they were purple, eyes, and suddenly it hit him that this was all-too familiar-

"You," He said in a horrified tone, body stiff.

-------------------

The vampiric aura had disappeared abruptly as it reached the side of the building.

Reno was making sounds like a wet cat.

"They can't just walk through walls and disappear! That's not possible!" was what he was actually saying, but in such a tone that it sounded more like yowling.

Rude just stayed quiet. He was the cool guy who stood in the back of the group and doesn't really do anything but crack his knuckles and every once in awhile break an obviously flawed board to show how mighty and powerful he was. Reno was the flamboyant, scantily dressed villain who made the plans and screamed like a sissy when something went wrong . . . which brought up a good point.

Why were villains always so scantily clad? Kuja point and case. Talk about flamboyant, there was no way that was a man. There was physically no room for male anatomy in-

"I think we should bust down the door," Reno hissed.

What Rude thought was 'Then why didn't we do that when we first got here' what he said was "Okay".

-------------------

Reno loved breaking things. It could have been in his red-head DNA or something like that- either way, he liked to, and he was good at it. Kind of. He threw himself against the door, putting his shoulder into it. It didn't budge. Maybe he should stick to breaking little things, like fingers and...whatever. He turned to Rude. "You break it down, then," He said smartly, crossing his arms.

Rude shrugged and pulled his foot back, kicking the door soundly. It fell over with a thud. With a smooth flick of his wrist, he adjusted his sunglasses. "After you," He intoned, handout in a 'ladies first' gesture.

Reno snarled and stalked past him, gun at the ready. His eyes swept the small interior of the coffee shop- counter, a few tables, a small bathroom (door open, small, a closet almost) - empty. All empty.

"Shit," Reno hissed, kicking a chair with no small amount of anger. The room smelled so freaking fresh of power, like a vampire had peed on the walls in some smug little "haha, I have Cloud and now I'm peeing on the walls to piss you off" way. "SHIT!" Cloud wasn't there. Cloud. Was. Not. There.

Rude laid a hand on Reno's shoulder, going for comfort despite the fact that he was totally aware that Reno was more likely to bite his fingers off than accept condolence. "We'll find him." He said bluntly.

Reno kicked a chair. It broke. He smiled, feeling a little better already. "Yeah." He said softly. "We might."

----------------------

Zak smiled down at the sleeping blonde. Aw! He was SO cute! Like a puppy! Or . . . something cute! The vampire kneeled down, shaking the kid like he would a young child.

"Hey, babe. Wake up." There was no response; he tried again, "I'll give you three seconds." This time it was closer to a warning. There was a slight pause, then-

"WHAT THE HELL!"

Aw! Wouldn't it be cute if a puppy looked up at you with its big brown eyes and said "F& you, I want the food"? The feeling Zak got when Cloud started screaming curses what about that level.

"You," the absolute horror in the blonde's eyes just made the spiky haired man want to cuddle him until all his fears went away, which judging by what the cause of his fear was would be about the same period as he went into cardiac arrest.

"Me!" If this was a manga, there would be a little heart at the end of that sentence, but this isn't a manga. Sorry to disappoint you.

"What . . . what do you want? What are you going to do?"

There were so many possible answers to that question that would be true. Rating ranged between G to what would be banned from porn shops. Zak just smiled.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you're tired." A little more Vampire Glamour and the older man had an armful of hot blonde sleeping like the dead. Oh the possibilities. He could skip through a field of daisies! Or take the kid to Paris! Or sing him a love song! Or go to an arcade! Or fish!

Well, he had the blonde and the night was yet kinda-sorta young!

A/N: Hope you liked it! I love the comments! 3 Comments are like cookies, it motivates you to do a better job and get the job done faster. SO THANK AGAIN!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I think its pretty obvious we don't own FFVII by the fact that both Zak and Seph are not either in it or on the same side as Cloud respectively and do not, at a shown point in the game because everyone knows its going on behind the scenes, have a hot make-out session/orgy/anything of any kind of sexual nature. le sigh

marissa: Thanks!

guess: burns self on hot cookies Nummy!

Izair: Thank you so much!

kitsunedemon: And the plot thickens. I'm not sure if this chapter is a cliff hanger or just an annoyance . . . hope it intrigues you.

darkmoon1202: Sorry you had to wait so long, but I hope this chap is worth it

Isle of Pens: Thanks!

Aki: Luckily Zak was too distracted by his visions of what to do with Cloud to remember the neon sign. Sephiroth is thankful.

Angelus: Thanks for reading!

The Sinner of Anger: And Cloud's karma continues to eat donuts instead of being on duty

Azimel: Glad you liked it!

marionette kadaj: There should be some more Reno and Rude in the next chapter, for now you get to see what they do though

zack cloud fanatic: Hope you enjoy!

Garnet W.: I hope this chapter answers your questions

HotIceRed: Vampires all the way! I was so afraid this story was going to be a stereotypical vamp fic and people would be like "been there, done that". I'm glad you like it!

When Cloud woke up hours? minutes? later, the first thing that he noticed was that he was in the dark and on something soft. A bed? He scrunched up his fingers, feeling blankets giver underneath his fingers. He let loose a shuddering breath and pulled a hand over his face slowly- it was all a dream. No burglars, no coffee shop, no... no weird purple eyed stranger...

Cloud smiled a little and stretched out his legs, toes wiggling. He would have to make sure to watch what he ate before bed if he was going to have such vivid dreams.

"You slept a lot longer than I thought," A voice complained noisily, making Cloud hiccup in terrified shock and flail off of the bed. "I mean, I had plans for us last night. Now its dawn and we're stuck here..."

Cloud let out a squeak, body instinctively curled into a ball on the floor- a very, very cold floor- holy shit, was it marble? How the hell had he thought this place was his room?! He swallowed heavily, eyes searching the blackness for the source of the voice. A very familiar voice. Kind of. If you counted knowing it from a few hours ago familiar. "Where... where are you?"

"Oh yeah... poor kid, you can't see in the dark. Tch, that sucks." A pair of strong hands came from no where and hoisted Cloud effortlessly back onto the bed, settling him back amongst the blankets. Cloud scooted away convulsively, wincing in anger as the voice chuckled in amusement.

"You... you kidnapped me." Cloud hissed, fingers clutched tight at his biceps in a somewhat protective manner. "Take me home."

Again, an unseen touch pulled Cloud, plopping him in what felt like... a lap. "No can do, little guy. If I let you go now, I'll have to kill you." The voice dropped its joking tone. "Literally."

---------------

Zak hummed to himself in sheer happiness. At least, that's what he told himself. In truth he was humming for no good reason, but some people would insist that there was a reason for everything, so there had to be a reason for his humming. So maybe he was humming out of self-preservation to keep the reason people away. But all in all that didn't make much sense either.

"Why would you have to kill me?" the blonde asked suddenly from his fetal position.

"I won't, but Seph will totally kill me and you if I let someone who knows about us go free," the vampire nodded.

"I don't know anything about you!"

"That can be fixed! See, we're vampires, Seph and me. We go around, drink blood, sleep in coffins, (this was a lie but the kid didn't need to know, Sephiroth slept in an elegant four poster while Zak had only recently parted with his race car bed for a simple king size, pillow top, super extra fluffy mattress) the whole nine yards!" Zak told his captive enthusiastically.

"Vampires don't exist." Cloud pointed out with the certainty of one who has seen the entire world and knows everything there is to know about it. He was a college student after all.

"Yeah huh," the stunning show of maturity made Cloud's eye twitch. CUTE!

"Why do you have a bed then?"

Seph would have come up with an uncreative answer like "For appearances", Zak was far more creative.

"It's the guest bed." The look the blonde gave him told him he obviously didn't find the answer as cool as Zak did.

"Whatever. If you are a vampire why haven't you sucked my-" Zak started snickering in a most unsophisticated way "-blood?"

"That is a very good question actually."

Oh crap.

"Hi, Seph."

------------------------------------------

It was a vision.

It had to be.

A box of light opened into the room (a door? a portal to heaven? a very large, square flashlight?), blinding Cloud momentarily while at the same time allowing him vision to scramble off of the freaky kidnappy-man's lap.

And then. Then a silhouette filled the doorway, a broad shouldered, backlighted image of sheer perfection.

"Hi, Seph." Kidnappy-man said happily, groping Cloud back into the comfort of his man-bosom. Cloud would have resisted, were it not that he were totally dumbfounded by the... by the godly, perfect /thing/ that was staring at his with BEAUTIFUL green eyes like he was a bug on a shoe.

"Oh really, Seph. Tone down the beautiful aura, 'kay? The kid isn't used to it yet."

Cloud watched in rapt fascination as the man walked into the room with slow, measured strides, his eyes never leaving Cloud's. The light from the door- flickering light- candle light?!?!- dimmed and the room seemed to spin, almost. The god-man stopped just short of where Zak was cuddling Cloud, staring dispassionately at the quivering blonde boy before reaching out a long fingered hand to pull his chin up, the young man's head falling back obediently to rest in the space between Zak's head and shoulders.

"The one from before?"

"Um, well-"

"Kill him."

------------------------------

"SEPH!"

"We can't let him go, Zakarie, there are Lithen Monks following him."

"Monks? What are they doing here? I thought we ditched them when we left Eurasia" Zak blinked stupidly.

"They are trying to kill us, obviously, and the Lithen Order is far more widespread than just Europe and Asia. I've heard rumor that there is a large congregation in New York City for one and there are many smaller sections as well as individuals scattered all over the country. Two are following this boy."

"How do you know that?" Zak glared up at the older vampire, clutching the blonde closer to him until he heard a struggled gasping and remembered humans weren't as strong as vampires, "Whoops! Sorry bout that, kid." The only response he received was a wheezing, which was close enough to 'You are the hottest thing I have ever layed eyes on, please bang me into the wall heart' for him.

"If you weren't so busy stalking him you would have noticed the disgusting scent that clings to him," Sephiroth said coldly, turning icy eyes to the boy Zak held.

The dark-haired vampire sniffed, Cloud did indeed smell funny. Like the herbs the Lithen Monks used to make funny powders that helped them kill vampires. Zak had never had any experience with the stuff himself, but Seph had and had educated the other in the dangers posed by the seeming harmless men.

"Can't I keep him?"

"He is not a dog, Zakarie."

Dog. Mmmm, bad thought process there. Cloud plus collar equals **This portion has been censored to allow the rating to remain below M . . . or XXX for that matter. Thank you – the management**

"Zak."

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Ahem, I meant to say: He could help us around the house or something? Or I would be happy to chain him to my bed."

"I don't want to know, Zakarie. I really don't." Sephiroth started, but the other's eyes were already glazed over and he was drooling slightly.

---------------------------------------

"You're pretty." Cloud said suddenly, jerking up and out of Zak's arms as if this 'Seph' was holding a leash and had yanked rather hard. Silence fell in the room, but Cloud didn't notice. He was entranced.

"For the love of-" Sephiroth rubbed at the spot between his eyebrows, glaring at Zak from under his fingers. "This is why you don't bring humans home. Besides the fact that we eat them and they are dangerous." He glanced at the boy in a guarded, cold manner, hoping to offset his weird... staring.

'Ohgodhe'slookingatme.' Cloud let himself be molded back against Zak, eyes wide and face flushed. He didn't even blink when something tweaked his nipple. A loud sigh came from behind him, the hard chest against his back rising dramatically.

"Seph," Hands closed around Cloud's, kneading his fingers. Cloud didn't really notice. "Really. Tone something down. The kid's drooling on himself." A pause. "Which is kinda hot."

Suddenly it was as if someone turned a very bright light down- Cloud blinked, disoriented, and was able to pull his eyes away from Sephiroth without inhuman effort. What was standing before him was no longer a being of blindingly hot god-like looks, but more of an extremely sexy, annoyed looking man.

Sephiroth sat on the edge of the bed, near the huddle of Zak-and-Cloud. "Zakarie. Either you get rid of him or I do." He licked his lips, staring into the other man's violet eyes. "And my way is much, much more painful."

Cloud was pretty sure this was not a good time to get a boner. Shit. Bunnies. His grandma. Sexy silver haired man. Shit!

"Seph," Cloud almost jumped at the almost /inhuman/-ly deep, hot purr that came from behind him, his hands jumping to clench at his biceps. "What's a few monks? Come on... This place is so lonely, just the two... of us..." A hand rose to play with the nape of Cloud's neck, and Cloud felt very much like a mouse caught between two cats. "He can be one of us? What's so bad..." A hand brought Cloud's own limp fingers up, playing with them as what felt like a kiss? what the hell?! was placed to his knuckles. "About one more body to share our bed?"

Sephiroth glared. "Don't use that tone of voice with me."

--------------------

Zak had been VERY displeased when Sephiroth's vampiric Glamour had affected the blonde so acutely. Not that having the blonde plaster his body against Zak's own hadn't been nice, but he would have preferred a different reason, thusly, he was going to take his revenge in the best (only) way he knew how.

"You know very well that that would not be a good idea, Zakarie." Sephiroth said in his dangerous voice, which would have sent Cloud into moans if the silver-haired vampire hadn't turned down his Glamour. Such a useful tool, Glamour, not that Zak needed it. He was naturally incredibly attractive and irresistible.

"And why not?" Zak pouted.

"I dun wanna die," the blonde in his lap suddenly whimpered. Zak felt a glimmer of guilt, but it was quickly replaced. After all, what could possibly be better than spending time with him?

"Zakarie. Neither of us has the age or experience necessary to make a new vampire. There are so many things that could go wrong, at best he could turn out catatonic, he could also go insane, he could reject the blood and die slowly as his own body slowly destroys him. Is that what you want, Zakarie?"

"Then let me keep him alive! We can wait until we find a more experienced vampire and have them change him!"

"Why are you set on this human, Zakarie!" Sephiroth was finally starting to lose him temper.

It was not something the other vampire could answer, and Seph knew it. Even Zak didn't know why he was drawn to the boy; he was old enough to have forgotten his human emotions, but not yet old enough to understand that vampires could feel them. It was not a situation conducive to a good ending.

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get up guys. Also, I am aware that messes up some of the symbols/punctuation, cuss words are hard it doesn't like the asterisk at all. But I decided to just leave everything in the original format, you all are intelligent people and I think you can figure out when there are problems. THANK YOU


	6. Chapter 6

SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE! I HOPE THIS CHAPTER IS FUN AND INTERESTING!

Even though all the reviewers probably can't remember anymore what they said (TT sorry) heres your responses:

Michiko Gatanami: I'm glad we are broadening your horizons in a good way and I'm really glad you like it!

kirallie: Sadly, none of your questions are answered in this chapter, but we did introduce more!

darkmoon1202: Thanks! I hope we continue such a spectacular tradition, here's hoping!

JaimeyKay: My bet is a whole pack of prozac.

Jenniyah: Then read on!

Isle of Pens: Making people laugh is the entire reason for Zak's existence, that and the fact that I am absolutely in love with him, but mostly entertainment.

Aki: Indeed he did, but Seph doesn't know that –tee hee-

guess: WOOT! Brownies now!

Toons: Thanks for reading! Continue to enjoy!

OShayO: I would defiantly have to agree with you there –is a major vampire geek-

WhiteWolfCub: I still feel so bad about this being so late . . . hopefully people will still remember!

HotIceRed: Major agreement from me about the threesome, if this was only my fic there would be SOOOO much of that. Hence the reason I have voodoodoll! It would be PWP without her, only T rated PWP which is no fun at all.

The Sinner of Anger: I would TOTALLY buy a doujinshi with these guys as vampires! In an INSTANT.

kazuhiko: It would indeed help Cloud's safety, but Zak has the intellect of a goldfish so we run into a dilemma XD I totally made up the word Lithen, my spell check hates me –shrug-

arelente2: Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I own my imagination (no one else would claim is XP) but not the characters, sadness –tear-

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Cloud had a feeling that things weren't going in his direction- the silver-haired man was going on about how he should die and why- and Cloud's case wasn't looking too good. For one, this weird, psycho kidnapper man was obviously losing the argument in favor of Cloud's life, and for two- he wasn't even trying, really, to argue for Cloud! For Pete's sake, he was molesting his belly button while he was talking!

Cloud scowled and tried valiantly to do a cool duck-and-roll off of the bed- maybe he could escape, maybe (even though his mind said 'or maybe you can't and they will kill you because they might just really be not human'). The crazy Zak man just grabbed onto him tighter, eyes not focused on him.

"I'm not going to let you kill him, Seph," Zak's voice swept past Cloud's ear in the most crazily dominant tone Cloud had ever heard. It was bone-liquefying, like putting jello in an oven. Cloud slumped in Zak's arms and batted once, feeble, at the hands pinching his hip bones. Yay. Maybe he wasn't going to die. He wiggled, a last ditch effort maybe to escape- but alas, he was jello-Cloud.

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Oh YES! BUT NO! NO NO NO. Distraction not good at a time like this. Zak forcibly pulled his mind away from the feeling of Cloud wiggling on his lap.

Sephiroth raised a single elegant eyebrow, "I don't see how you could stop me, Zakarie. Besides, you must see the truth of what I am telling you. There are simply too many cons and not enough, in fact none that I can see, pros."

"Then you're not looking hard enough! Look at him! He's so cute and defenseless!"

"That is not in any way relevant to this conversation."

"Seph . . . Sephiroth, I know it doesn't make much, heck, any sense, but I just can't let him go, ya know? You don't know why and I don't know why, but I can't," every ounce of humor had drained from Zak's face, leaving him deadly serious and oh so sincere. Sephiroth sighed.

"Zak, there are Lithen Monks after him," the silver-haired man rubbed his temples with one long fingered hand.

"I know, Seph. Really I do, I just . . . can't."

"I hope, for both of our sakes that you can, Zak, because I don't know what else we can do."

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Reno sat quietly as Rude drove, eyes absorbing the city lights as they flew past the windshield. He had absolutely no clue how his partner managed to pull off ninety per hour in such a congested area- but he wasn't complaining. His eyes rolled over to watch the way the streetlights bounced off of his partner's shiny head.

"Rude. Do you know where we are going?"

Rude answered without hesitation. "That is disclosed information."

"Bullshit, man." Reno drawled, tapping his knuckled on the window. "I'm same rank as you. Disclosed my ass." He paused. "My damn fine ass."

Rude shrugged. "Some warehouse, Reno. You know just as well as I do."

Reno shrugged. "Yeah." He had just hoped that for once Tseng would have given them a real address this once, not the game of tag they had to play to find the man. They would know- they would feel- when they were close, but until then it was going to be a long drive. What an inefficient system. Cloud could have been a corpse long ago.

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There were rows and rows of warehouses along the edges of the industrial section of town. Far too many for two men to search in a single night. It was a good thing that they didn't have to search them all then.

Rude felt the slight tingle of power as they neared one of the large collections of warehouses and turned to parallel them. Reno could have pointed out which one they needed from the distance they were at, but he was probably still moping. It had only been about twenty five minutes and Reno usually moped for a thirty. It payed to know your partner, not that it helped a lot in this particular case.

Luckily, the tingle changed to almost a burn outside one of the large metal buildings and Rude parked in front. There was no mistaking something that Tseng wanted you to find, it was just the kind of man he was, and the kind of power he wielded.

The power rolled along the dark man's skin as he stepped from the car. Tseng had come from somewhere across the ocean, Reno had money on somewhere in Russia where the sun never shown and everyone was a humorless prick. Rude couldn't care less, the point was that Tseng was from one of the original Lithen covenants and had the power to prove it. Power that might be able to find a single boy hidden under two powerful vampire shields.

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Reno shuffled a little bit as they stood in front of the warehouse, looking very, very nervous. "Uh. Um. I'll wait outside. If this is the place."

Rude looked at him. Reno wished he didn't always wear sunglasses, because he couldn't tell if it was a good look or bad look. Wait, why would Rude be giving him a 'good' look in the middle of the night in front of an abandoned warehouse? Kinky. Sorta. Only...Reno had never thought of Rude looking at him like that. In fact-

"Reno. Stop staring at me. You're going in." And with that, Rude walked stealthily (well, as stealthily as he could) towards the large building. Ah, that was it! Reno didn't want to go in because Tseng was scary! Aha! But... Rude was already at the door, and to be fair... the empty street was pretty scary, too. Not as scary as Tseng, but at least Rude could protect him with his bulk or something if he stuck with him.

Rude hesitantly tried at the handle of the small, aluminum door of the warehouse- surprisingly, it opened, and the two walked in slowly.

"Fuck, I wish I would have brought a flashlight," Reno whispered, catching his hand on what could have been a spider web in the dark. The door closed behind them as they advanced into the totally dark building, just like in a scary movie. Fucking Tseng! Freaking warehouse!

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The warehouse was empty inside, that in itself was strange, what use is an empty warehouse? Rude understood some of Reno's apprehension, not that he agreed the red-head was handling the situation in the right way, but he had come to expect him to over react and would actually start being afraid if he didn't.

Tseng was standing in the middle of the floor, he couldn't have chosen a more ominous position if he had hired Hollywood directors to carefully test and retest each location for the most ominous-ness. Reno must be loving this.

"Tseng." Rude stopped a couple yards from the other man and waited.

"Rude, Reno," the named party cringed and moved another half step closer, which, for all of you who dropped out of kindergarten math, means he was a whole step closer than before. See, word problems can be fun! "I trust this is a very interesting case for you to have called me in. I will be most disappointed if you have wasted my time."

"Understandably, sir. This is a most unusual case, I am sure you will understand our reasons for calling you in," Rude said flatly. Tseng was not the type of man you kept waiting, even an extra second in answering could be all the difference.

"I hope so." That was "Tell me about your case and how it is abnormal" in Tseng speech.

Rude wasted no time in outlining the events with Cloud and what little they knew of his vampiric kidnapper.

Tseng frowned, a display of emotion which would not go well on Reno's nerves, the red-head was far to sensitive to be unaffected by the way someone as strong as Tseng's power shifted with their emotions, and it had to be quite the emotion for it to show on Tseng's face.

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"This is quite the problem," Tseng said finally, bringing a hand to smooth back his hair. "You were right in calling me."

Rude nodded, face firm. Reno just stared at him in the same freaked-out way he usually did. Tseng really didn't know what the red-head's problem was with him, but it probably had to do with the man's heightened sense of empathy. Eh, whatever. Tseng had bigger things to worry about, really.

"Please, give me a minute," Tseng said flatly after a moment of silence, slipping a slim, sleek object from his pocket- a cell phone, amazingly thin and stylishly designed. He nodded at the pair standing before him before proceeding to snap his fingers-

And then he was on the roof. Ah, sweet privacy. He could just imagine the look on Reno's face after that stunt- relatively easy magic, but light-years above the bumbling red-head's level. Now, Rude... ah, but that was a topic for another time. He dialed a number deftly, the sequence all but memorized by his fingers. He watched a crow peck around on the gravelly roof as he waited for an answer. Beep. Beep.

"Mmnrg."

Tseng smiled. That was a good enough of a hello, he supposed. "Good morning, sunshine," he said in a deadpan, frowning as the crow started to peck annoyingly close to where he was standing. Hello? Mr. Bird? Ever hear of a private call? Tseng kicked a pebble at it. It flew away with a squawk. He returned to his call, which hadn't really proceeded at all beyond a muffled yawn on the other line. "It turns out Reno and Rude aren't as incompetent as we believed."

A second of silence. "...explain yourself, Tseng." If the voice hadn't had been so sleepy, it would have been threatening. Tseng almost smiled.

"Well," Tseng said, running a hand through his ponytail, "It seems that some very strong vampiric beings are active and working in very public settings- according to Rude they have already taken a student at the local college."

"That is serious," The voice on the other line didn't sound too worried- in fact, it almost sounded smug. "I trust that you can take care of this nuisance, Tseng, before any higher authorities than I find out. You are my best man, after all..."

"I won't disappoint, sir." Tseng said, his smirk emanating into his tone. "I'll be back before you wake up from your nap, even."

Tseng smiled as a voice sighed into his ear, sounding much put-upon. "If you'll ever let me get back to one. Goodbye, Tseng. Good luck."

Like he needed it. Tseng cocked his head, cracking his neck. "Sweet dreams, Rufus." A chuckle was all that he was met with, then a dial tone. Tseng shrugged as he was hung up on and slid his phone back into his pocket, feeling a little bored with the whole ordeal. Mere vampires were usually not something he condescended to deal with, but the faster he dealt with this the faster he could go home. He sighed and snapped again, more for show than anything, and was met a split-second later with the sight of Reno gaping at him like he was Houdini. How did the kid get this job, again?

Tseng folded his hands in a diplomatic manner, regarding the two before him. "I have talked to my superior," He stated, "And it has been decided that action should be taken now, and not any later."

Reno and Rude nodded in unison, waiting for his next command. Seriously, these guys were like puppies.

"And," Tseng smirked. "I won't need your help. Goodnight." He snapped again, simply because he really liked the grandeur of the action, and disappeared back out on the street, near his car.

This would be easy.

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The night was quiet for the most part, then a low sobbing started behind him.

"Would you PLEASE SHUT UP!" he hissed back at his oldest brother. More sobbing was his response.

"There, there, don't let him get to you," the middle brother patted his sobbing sibling's back.

"This is not happening," the youngest rubbed his temples, turning to face the night once more. The section of warehouses they now stood near reeked of Lithen power, old, but not too.

"Oh leave him alone," the middle child said again, dragging his older brother along to where the youngest stood, "What do you think?"

"He was right," even though he absolutely DETESTED admitting it. The sobbing slowed and ended with a slight sniffle, "Either there is a conclave here or just one of large power, either way it's a good find." His sibling had gone from sobbing to beaming with the complement.

"What do you intend to do about it?"

"I don't know yet," he turned and strode away from the stench, "If it's a conclave that isn't very active we may not find them again until they need to renew whatever spell they have wrought tonight, and that could be a very long time indeed."

"If it's a single person?"

"Then they have not finished whatever task they set out to do and we will find them with the moon."

"Why do you say that?" the middle brother rubbed his oldest siblings back absent-mindedly as he spoke.

"There is no reason for there to be this much fear in the air without the scent of death if it was one powerful person. A powerful person does not need to feat their power, and anyone with them who would be afraid would likely end up a casualty. If it is person, we will know quite soon," the moonlight glimmered on his silver hair as Kadaj smiled down at the warehouses, "Quite soon indeed."

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After their conversation Sephiroth had left, leaving Zak and Cloud alone.

Again.

"Can I get off your lap?" Cloud asked quietly, uber-aware of how the other man was breathing down his neck. Okay, so maybe these guys were... not... normal. He would just have to choose a better time to get away from this place, and he was pretty sure he couldn't do it under the watch of Zak. Especially when said man was stretched around him like an overprotective octopus. So for now- nice and quiet. Like a mouse around a mouse trap.

Zak chuckled, the action reverberating through Cloud's back. Cloud gulped down a large mouthful of breath at that, cheeks going red. "I'm not ready to let you go just yet," Zak responded airily, squeezing at Cloud. A chin made its presence known on Cloud's shoulder, making him squirm. Seriously, all the weird, butterfly feelings? Just fear. Its okay, Cloud, You are totally not being turned on by some strange man molesting you. Especially after he kidnapped you, dude.

Cloud coughed, feeling more awkward than he had ever felt in his short life. "Could you, you know, stay above the belt, then?"

The finger that had slipped into the waist of Cloud's pants retreated obediently. Cloud let out a sigh of relief.

A few minutes went by and Cloud slowly relaxed into the firm, squeezy embrace he was ensconced in- okay, this was bad, but it could be worse, right? Instead of a snuggly kidnapper he could have been stolen by a... kill-y one. He nodded to himself, stretching out his legs. He felt strangely calm, almost too calm, for being in such a situation. And a little bit sleepy, now that he thought about it...

"Tired?" Zak rumbled, hoisting Cloud off of his lap Cloud slumped against the soft bed, all jelly, no bones. Little did he know that Zak had pulled a few strings and magicked him all sleepy-like, but that was only because he didn't want Cloud running out on him before they had any fun. And not just the sexy fun, either. Really. A hand brushed against Cloud's forehead. Cloud mumbled something incoherent. Really, things...could be worse.

Then he fell asleep.

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A/N: SORRY AGAIN FOR HOW LATE LATE LATE THIS IS! ((blame voodoodoll –shifty eyes-)) ANYWAY! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR STILL READING AND REVIEWING AND BEING SUPER FANTASTIC! I got yelled at for being too easy to persuade -sweatdrop- but I can't help it! All you great reviews make me wanna write more and more! Ack, I'm blabbering now . . . THANKS AGAIN


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Why is this required at every chapter? Why are rabbits spheres? -still angry about that- What IS the meaning of life the universe and everything? . . . Oh 42, right. My bad. Nevermind. We don't own –smiles-

WhiteWolfCub: I'm pretty sure this is the smallest time between updates we've had, so hopefully It will go EVEN FARTHER to obtaining reader forgiveness.

Ashyx: Glad you liked it! Have another!

Toons: Ask and ye shall receive

kazuhiko: What would a story be without a SUPER MYSTERIOUS. . .ness TO OVERCOME?! What does that mean? WAIT AND SEE. And there will TOTALLY be more ZakCloud, that is my OTP of ALL TIME

Xxevvy2006xX: Ok, here go!

Aki: Zak less perverted? MUST FIX THAT! XD

darkmoon1202: To tell you the truth I was even expecting Rufus, and then voodoodoll puts it in and I was like . . . TsengRufus?! She hasn't told me if it will happen yet though, so I am as curious as you as to what he is up to.

itachichane: The surgeon general recommends that you do not drink or eat while reading this fic

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Zak smiled down at the now sleeping blonde. He knew he shouldn't have brought the kid here, knew he should kill him now that he was, but he hadn't been lying to Seph when he said he just couldn't. Something about Cloud just made it impossible for the spiky-haired vampire to wish him any sort of harm, unless that harm was done consensually and as a prelude to hot sex.

Oops, had he thought that? Bad Zak, bad bad Zak. Not until he's coherent and agrees!

There was also something about Cloud that made it impossible to keep his mind out of the gutter for more than a twenty seconds when he was around the boy. Or maybe that was just him. Hmmm, there was a possibility.

Zak ran a hand through the sleeping boy's hair, smiling. He knew it would take an army of really good reasons to make the other man understand, but it only took that little bubbly feeling, kinda like the time he'd mixed beer, champagne and lighter fluid (it was a good thing he was already dead at this point, do not try this at home kiddies) only sweeter and less likely to explode randomly.

"Maybe I should ask him what he thinks," he said aloud suddenly, talking to himself always helped him solve problems.

"But what if he said no?" ZakX2 responded.

"Why would he? Hot lover, eternal life, hot lover, undead sex, hot lover."

"If anyone sane were hearing this you would be locked up . . . again (brief period directly following the invention of the electroshock therapy, which Zak had thought sounded 'fun; and 'exciting'. A very long story that Seph said killed brain cells by its very existence). Especially the undead sex part, that's just sick. Most people think zombies when they think undead."

Zak paled, "Ew . . . ewewewewewewewewewew! VAMPIRE SEX! VAMPIRE SEX!"

"I am quite sure I do not want to know, Zakarie," Sephiroth's voice floated from the hall.

Oh, so THAT was why he'd stopped talking to himself.

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"Can you believe this crap?" Reno fumed, kicking the side of a random, empty dumpster angrily. "That stupid freaking jerk! 'Oh I'll just come along and take care of things no need for you little men oho'- that shit ain't cutting it!" He stomped around, red hair lashing behind him like a whip. Rude watched him, calm and unmoved by his partner's outburst. Sure, Tseng was a jerk- but was Reno really upset that he had taken the work off their hands?

"Reno," Rude cut in after a while, tired of watching his partner fume. "Let's go home. I've got some beer in the fridge if you-"

Reno held up a hand. "Be quiet."

Rude raised an eyebrow. Beer usually worked with Reno.

Reno stood up straight, eyes wide and searching. What- what was that sudden presence, like someone was watching them? He lowered his hand, spinning on his heel. No one was there, not anywhere- and there wasn't much room to hide in the little alley between warehouses they were standing in. He shivered and grabbed at Rude's sleeve, catching and hanging on. "We gotta go. We gotta go /now/."

Rude knew better than to question Reno. His partner joked around sometimes, sure, but never like this. If something was making Reno look like that Rude wanted to be as far away from it as possible- and quick. He let Reno pull him towards the direction that he parked the car, all the while checking around. No one was there- not that he trusted mere vision.

Reno sighed in relief as he caught sight of Rude's car, breaking into a jog as they neared it. God, he felt so weird- a strange aura- stranger than Tseng's, even- was suddenly /there/, not even bothering to mask itself. Or maybe it was too powerful to mask. Either way, someone was prowling around letting loose a bold 'I AM HERE' message and Reno wasn't going to stick around to see who.

"Hurry up," Reno urged lowly, jiggling the door handle. It was locked, of course. His blood was practically fizzing with nervousness. "Rude, HURRY UP."

Rude hissed, fumbling around in his pockets for his keys. Shit, shit. shit, where- oh. "Found them," He said, lifting up the little key ring, pulling his hand back to toss them to Reno-

Just one problem, though.

Reno wasn't there.

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The boy was shaking like an old washing machine under their scrutiny.

"You are sure he has something to do with them?" he didn't look like much to Yazoo. Just a scared kid, probably not even out of human college.

Kadaj nodded, "He sensed us. I know he did."

"Couldn't he just be sensitive?" Loz said suddenly.

"You'd know all about sensitive," Kadaj half-spat. Loz started making big wet sniffling noises. There was absolutely nothing that Yazoo hated more than that infernal sound, and he had a feeling his younger sibling knew it. What other reason did he have to torture their eldest brother so?

"Could he be?" Yazoo leaned against the concrete wall of the warehouse they were in.

Kadaj hesitated, "He could be . . .," and came back with double the confidence, "But he's not. He knows something."

"By all means, then, find out," Yazoo drew Loz into his arms, patting the other man's back and making soothing noises as he watched their brother move in to begin the interrogation.

"Have you ever heard of the Lithen monks?" the captives eyes were shot with white and he was shaking even harder, "You have, haven't you. And you know where they are, don't you."

"I d…d…d…don't kn…know an…n…nythin ab…bout th…them," the boy chattered.

"Of course you don't," Kadaj knelt in front of the boy, he was obviously enjoying himself, "But you will soon. You'll sing like Loz in the shower."

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"I s-s-said I don't k...KNOW an-anything," Reno managed, trying for all the world to make a scary face at his captors. It was kind of hard to do, though, when he was chained to a concrete wall, surrounded by what appeared to be bondage-clad teenagers. He knew better, of course- he could sense that they were bondage-clad /vampires/. Big difference. He took in a steadying breath- shit, if it wasn't so cold he wouldn't sound so wimpy! "G-give me my sh-sh-shirt back and I might go e-e-asy on you when I-"

"When you what?" The one who had been asking the questions asked derisively, laughing. "When you get down? You're not going anywhere, pretty boy. Besides," The short vampire held out his shirt, waggling it. "This flimsy thing won't protect you when we get started."

Reno watched sadly as his little sweater was thrown to the floor and crushed under one shiny, pleather bitch boot.

"Now," Suddenly the vampire was up on him, pressing him against the ice block of a wall. "You will tell me what you know of Lithen Monks. Or..." He ran a tongue over his lip, making his fangs very visible to Reno.

Reno smiled wolfishly, his teeth chattering loudly. "Or wh-what? You're gonna ha-have your naughty w-w-way with me?"

The man stepped back, flipping his hair over his eye. "Yes. Something like that." He stretched his fingers, cracking his knuckles loudly. "Yazoo. Could you show our friend a good time?" He flashed a sharp grin over his shoulder, beckoning Yazoo over with a crooked finger.

Reno's stomach dropped. Shit, this was going to get serious, he could tell. Where was Rude when he freaking needed him? He shut his eyes- maybe he could like, telecommunicate like in Star Trek or something- he had magic, right? C'mon, Rude, if you can hear my mind-voice- Nope. Useless. Reno cracked his eyes open-

Yazoo met Reno's gaze with a smile, about an inch from the chained man's face. "Hello," He murmured pleasantly, running a hand over Reno's bare chest. "You must be so uncomfortable..." He tilted his head, running leather-clad fingertips up Reno's arm, feeling goose bumps. "So cold."

Reno gulped. Yazoo watched the bob of his adam's apple with open interest.

"I can help you get down, get you away from my brothers," Yazoo whispered, moving in closer to Reno. "Just tell me what you know about Lithen Monks. That's it..." He rubbed up against Reno suggestively, the leather and buckles of his outfit scraping against the red-head's pale skin.

FUCK, Reno thought. He was getting a little sleepy; his body tingling with what he knew wasn't cold. The little shit was casting some sort of spell over him, something soft and warm and-

A seduction spell? Reno's eyes widened, his breath coming in a pained little gasp as veeeery sharp teeth took a little nip at his ear. Was this their big plan to get information from him? He freaked out a little his body stiff. Well, great, it was working.

"I- ah!- t-told you," Reno tried, not sounding very convincing as Yazoo ran his hands over his chest, "I kn-know nooOOthing!"

"Kadaj, make Yazoo back off," The man who had been crying said softly, looking like he was on the brink of tears again. "The guy doesn't know anything. Let's just suck him and go."

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Kadaj frowned at his oldest brother, "What are you talking about?"

Loz sniffled again, "Make him stop."

The youngest rubbed his temples again, "Why? He knows something, Yazoo will find it out. Why would WE STOP!" he snapped. Loz burst into tears.

"Loz . . ." Yazoo turned from the prisoner, taking a single step in the crying man's direction.

"Don't. You. Dare." Kadaj hissed, making the other pause, glancing between his two brothers.

"Kadaj, you shouldn't yell at him," Yazoo said calmly, "Loz, it's okay. He didn't mean it."

"YES HE DID!" Loz wailed.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. Quit undermining my authority!"

"I am not undermining your authority," Yazoo said patiently, "Just don't yell at Loz."

"You told him I didn't mean it! AND you aren't torturing the prisoner!" Kadaj snapped.

"I will continue to torture the prisoner just as you asked as soon as Loz stops crying," the middle-child explained with the patience of long suffering.

"He's only crying because you pay attention to him when he cries! If you stop paying attention and GO BACK TO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO DO he'll stop crying!"

"Just give me five minutes."

"WE NEED TO GET INFORMATION!"

"The information will still be there in five minutes," Yazoo said reasonably.

"BUT IT'S ALSO THERE NOW!"

"Kadaj, don't be unreasona-" A shot of pure blue lightning singed Yazoo's hair and created a 2 foot singe area inches from the prisoner's face. That should teach him who was in charge.

"Go. Back. To. Questioning. The. Prisoner."

"Of course," Yazoo turned and strode back stiffly, leaving Loz to sniffle in the background.

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Loz didn't have to take this crap.

If Kadaj was going to be mean and make Yazoo grope the information out of the prisoner- more power to him. It didn't mean Loz had to watch as Yazoo touched and licked and did... stuff to a complete stranger. "I'm getting out of here," He said loudly as soon as his voice came back, roughly wiping his wet cheeks.

"Whatever," Kadaj said flippantly, not even turning around. Loz glared at him angrily, lip curling and fists balling. He turned around jerkily, unable to watch the show anymore. Even if leaving meant he didn't get any part of the action later- whatever. He wrinkled his nose against a wave of sharp tears and stomped out of the room, into a dark corridor.

Loz spent the next few minutes wandering around the warehouse. There were some beer cans littered about and the place was infested with rats, but overall it was a pretty calming stroll. Most people would not be caught dead in such a place- it reeked of danger and bad, B-rated horror movies, but Loz was used to haunts like it. He and his brothers usually made base at places like the warehouse when they were away from home, simple because no one ever paid attention to such scary places.

That and there was never much sunlight in abandoned old buildings like that, either. That was a plus, considering their... occupation.

After a while Loz made his way to a stairwell, walls half-collapsed and steel stairs rusted and hole-ridden. He sighed and plopped down on one. It creaked dangerously.

"This sucks," He said throatily, hugging himself. Seriously, why was Kadaj such an asshole? Did Yazoo really need to plaster himself over that dumb human to get information? They could have just beat it out of him. Loz could have done that.

BAM.

Loz sat up, straighter than a rod. What the hell was that? He looked around, leaning to peer down the winding stairwell. He couldn't see anything except stairs and rats and beer cans. Huh.

BAM. "SHIT!"

Loz stood up, still and alert. Something- someone was close.

He cracked his knuckled and started down the stairs. It was his lucky night- he had been looking for a distraction.

-------------------------------------------------

Somewhere around here, right . . . no . . . left. A little to the North maybe . . . there. Okay, leftish. Rude turned the little beeping device from one side to the next as he walked.

BAM! And promptly ran into something. He looked up for a moment, it didn't make much difference. Sunglasses at night you know. . . _I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can SO I CAN forget my name while you call out your prayers_.

Okay, so maybe, okay, just a little bit- BAM! Something else. Peachy.

Now just a little to the . . . He was standing on the dot. Rude looked up, glanced around, looked back down, looked up, lowered his sunglasses, and got almost blind-sided by a fist. He dropped the little box and reached for his gun midway through a roll he didn't even recall starting.

The first two shots went wide as he came up, but he got his first real glimpse of his attacker.

The man looked to be maybe 30, but he was obviously trapped in the seventies judging by the slight flare to his cuffs and pants. However, the seventies had taken a stroll through Madame Chaton-de-sexe's House of Bondage. Bonjour, soigneriez-vous quelques menottes?

The third shot would have hit but it was knocked aside by some stupid looking gizmo on the man's arm. If the rest looked like a bondage outfit that would make it- daisies and butterflies.

Another roll almost had him out of range for the next kick, which sent him into a stack of whatever the warehouse was storing with enough power to do some serious wiggling to said stack.

He found out after his initial shock that the warehouse held road signs. And not the little green ones that tell you what mile you are on, but the big green ones with the names of the exit and how far it is. It hit his attacker on the head. Knocked him for a fruit loop.

Rude stood up and brushed the dust from his suit. For some reason, he just got the biggest sense of "HA! BACK AT YA!" Not that that made any sense, but hey, it was a 'for some reason' statement and thus didn't have to.

The little box was still beeping merrily, informing him that he was standing on top of Reno. Yes he had put a tracking device on Reno, but what was he supposed to do? He'd chewed through the Kiddie-Harness.

Or there could be a second floor. What kind of warehouse had a freaking second floor? He turned and began to scan what little he could see of the ceiling, because of all the piles of evidently road signs, for some sign of a staircase.

--------------------------------------

"Not my pants," Reno babbled, eyes shut and head thrown back. "Please...just... Lithen Monks. Yeah, I'll tell you-"

"Tell me what?" Yazoo's fingers paused, flicking the open button of Reno's jeans idly between long, leather-clad fingers. "Lithen Monks...what about them?" He chuckled as Reno let out a keening sigh, his seduction spell going quite nicely. Not that it was as much as a spell as tying a guy to the wall and touching him in dirty ways, but still. It was still an itty bit magical influenced.

Reno tried not to melt into goop and Yazoo licked at his collarbone, still playing with his pants. A small distance away the other, short-haired one watched them unblinkingly, a sadistic smile spread across his pretty face. Reno got the feeling he was getting waaaaaay more out of this than even he was. Creepy. Reno took in a huge breath, trying to gather himself.

"Lithen Monks," He let out, voice squeaking, "They... they hunt... vampires, right?"

Yazoo wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling his chained body away from the wall in an arch. "Getting warm, human," he purred, running a gentle hand into Reno's hair. "And what else?"

"And..." Reno wracked his mind. He couldn't let loose anything important- maybe if he baited them enough they would just kill him, leaving Rude- the whole Order- safe. "And they wear black suits."

The bite delivered to his neck, deep and oh god/sucking/ and not in the hickey way, let Reno know his answer was wrong.

"Wanna try again?" The watching man asked coldly, flicking his long, silver hair to the side.

Reno opened his mouth to deliver another flimsy answer. Then the floor exploded.

--------------------------------------

The first thing Rude noticed was that Reno was chained to the wall and being manhandled by a very close twin to his first attacker. The second thing he noticed was that he seemed to be enjoying it. Like a lot.

"Do you want me to come back?" He asked, deadpan. Concrete dust was still settling from where he had blown a hole through the floor. Don't ask how, trade secret.

"Rude! Uh . . . no . . . er . . . uh . . . it's not what you think?" he attempted to pale and blush at the same time, the result of which made him look nauseous. Or maybe he was just nauseous, who knew.

"Another monk?" the silver-haired man beside Reno purred, stroking a hand from the base of the red-heads neck to his collar bone and rubbing lightly, "Which one is he? Or did you not tell us about him?"

The world stopped turning for a brief second.

"NO WAY! I TOTALLY DIDN'T-"

"Silence, kitten," the silver-haired man covered his prisoner's mouth with one elegant hand, stroking along his jawbone.

This was not happening.

-----------------------------------------

"Rude," Reno stammered, body going hot as his surprise overcame the crazy vampire lust he was feeling. "Buddy, man, dude- HELP ME." He tried to wave his arms, but just ended up looking really retarded since they were tied to the wall.

Both Yazoo and Kadaj looked at him. Rude lowered his sunglasses in a very "I am bad-ass" manner.

"Well," Rude said calmly, dusting his suit off. "Am I going to take him peacefully or am I going to have to kick your asses?" He cracked his knuckled to emphasize his violent intent. Reno looked at him with stars in his eyes. "If you're anything as weak as your brother-"

Yazoo stepped forward, his mission of humping secrets out of Reno forgotten in an instant. "Loz?" He said disbelievingly, eyes wide. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing," Kadaj interrupted, making a disgusted noise as he sized Rude up. He smirked, crossing thin arms over his chest. "This human didn't do shit to Loz. He's bluffing. Don't let him lead you along so easily, Yazoo."

Rude shrugged, pulling out a handgun and tossing it from hand to hand carelessly, cracking his neck. "I guess you're right. I didn't have to 'do shit' to him to have him crying like a baby, really." He smirked to match Kadaj, looking quite dangerous. It must have been the way he was treating a handgun like a yoyo. Something about that screamed 'MAN OF DANGER'. "Now, are you going to give me Reno or not?"

"I'll kick your ass," Yazoo hissed, coming at Rude faster than the dark man could see.

Reno watched the going ons with a mix or horror and excitement- what had been Rude calming smack-talking two vamps had quickly turned into a crazy fight- Yazoo and Rude were trading punches so fast his eyes couldn't even follow their movements. Shit, he hadn't even known Rude could move like that, but then again- there had to be a reason for those muscles, right?

"Don't think you're gonna be rescued so easily," A venomous voice hissed into Reno's ear the same instant two cold hands wrapped around his throat. "My brothers may be pushovers, kid, but I'm the one running this show. You have two options and no time- squeal or die."

Reno started to choke at the pressure being used on his throat. Kadaj smiled at him innocently.

"I-" Reno started to choke out, eyes watering. Shit, he was going to die either way, wasn't he? "I-"

"RENO!" Suddenly Kadaj was replaced by Rude after a loud gunshot sounded off, his partner's strong arms going around him. Rude tried to tug him off of the wall, then noticed that hey- he was chained down. Rude took no time in shooting the chains shackling Reno down, then grabbed him again. "Let's go. We have no time."

Reno let himself he hauled off, grabbing at Rude as they shot out of the room. "But- But the vampires!"

"Silver bullets," Rude explained, kicking out a window. He poked his head out the opening he created, gauging how far it was to the ground. Five stories. They would live. "I shot them both twice."

Reno frowned. "But those are for werewolves..."

Rude hoisted himself onto the windowsill, gripping Reno bridal-style. Awkward. The younger man, for some reason, was not wearing a shirt. "Exactly. That's why we have to go NOW." Then he jumped, hoping that had sufficiently answer Reno's question.

They hit the pavement running.

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A/N: MYSTERY MYSTERY MYSTERIOUSNESS! REVIEWNESS EQUALS HEARTNESS!


	8. Chapter 8

Another long wait for all of you –wince- So sorry, we made the mistake of starting another RP at around chapter 5 and that's the cause for most of the lulls in this one, really sorry about that . . . But if you like PoT you could always look into Super Important Mission! Which is really pure crack . . . but it was mostly just for fun and posted as an afterthought . . . shameless self-promotion

THANKS FOR READING!

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WhiteWolfCub: hides Updated!

arelente2: I'm glad you like it!

kazuhiko: I hope this CONTINUES to give you questions! And I'm sorry about all the errors, I actually forgot to run spellcheck –wince-

String-home of Tolea: I hope this answers your question!

Aki: More Zak action to come!

Case-Chan's Angel: Glad you are enjoying it!

Kinzoko: Ask and ye shall receive . . . eventually –wince-

Sabith: I'm glad you like it!

The Sinner of Anger: There shall be more Zak eventually, not much of him in this one though, sorry.

Silver Tears 11: It's a secret! Please continue to enjoy!

Ashyx: And Rude's life would be immensely boring without Reno

scarlettHungress: YEAH! hums victory theme

HotIceRed: Enjoy this chap as well please!

darkmoon1202: Voodoodoll is the person who writes the other half of this, it's actually an RP her and I are doing.

KawaiiTidaChocoboCloud: Update for you!

Ice-Elk: Thanks for the comment!

Aeriadne: Of course they aren't dead, that would be boring XD

Cheekyamericangrl211: Urp, okay

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Disclaimer: If we owned it, then Aeris, Tifa and Yuffie would probably not be in it . . . fans of them be glad

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Sephiroth jolted awake suddenly, which was quite surprising considering it couldn't be more than an hour past noon. Vampires didn't necessarily sleep through the day, but it was hard not to when the sun was near its zenith.

He froze, listening to the sounds around him. There was nothing unusual that he could tell. But what had wakened him? With a slow breath Sephiroth began to stretch his senses to encompass more than what he could merely see.

At first there was nothing different, then, slowly, he became aware of a farther and farther radius. Zakarie's presence soon showed as a pulsing glow in his 'sight', curled around the blood-red shape that was the human boy. They really would have to do something about him, but for now there were more important things to deal with.

The farther out he got the easier and faster the expansion became. The house, the street, a few city blocks, his awareness grew out and out, covering the town. Each life that could provide energy for his kind showed up as red shapes of varying sizes, but nothing they did could have caused his premature awakening.

Farther and farther out, until he reached the city edge of town, still nothing worth concern. A little farther, stretching and stretching until- there. The silver-haired man frowned as he began the slower process of refocusing his awareness to that one spot.

There was an energy, almost new, down among the warehouse district.

The energy signature tickled his consciousness, trying to pull some memory from his mind. He had seen this before, but where or who yet eluded him. So focus on the what.

At first glance there was simply a ball of hazy energy, but once you got below the surface, the tones were there for anyone to read. This was none of the more common spells, a basic healing, an unseeing, a glamour; instead it was far more complicated with different intentions woven throughout to form the complex tapestry of the spell.

Here again came the sense of familiarity, the weave of the tapestry felt familiar under the scrutiny of his mind, like an old blanket found again in an attic perhaps, or a well-loved book, something owned by an individual for a long time and then set aside for a time, or maybe slightly altered-

What little blood he still had in his veins turned to ice as he realized where he had felt this energy signature before. It was his, with a subtle difference. The difference between the source of life and the ones animated by his power.

---------------------------------------

"Well," Kadaj remarked angrily, "That was pathetic, you failures." He dug a bullet from his chest with a long, slender finger, frowning deeply as he inspected the little piece of metal. Was that silver? Seriously, who the hell fired with silver bullets?

Loz hiccuped, looking decidedly pissy. "Look who's calling who a failure," He said gruffly, crossing his arms across his broad chest. Kadaj always tried to hurt with words- and it usually worked with him, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Why did the shorter brother have to be so mean? It wasn't like he had done any better against the monks. He was just looking for someone to blame to make himself feel better, the bully.

"Hey," A soft voice near him made Loz startle, almost losing his cool, composed cross-armed stature. Almost. He looked over to see Yazoo looking up at him pleasantly, eyes shining brightly in the dark. Like flashlights or something. The slender man held up a short length of leather, looking at Loz expectantly. "Tie my hair back?"

Oh, and here it was. The pity. Loz frowned- Yazoo knew how much Loz loved his hair- well, how much he loved anything shiny and soft- and usually exploited that fact when he was especially mopey. It never failed to cheer Loz up, playing with Yazoo's hair. It was like giving a lighter to a pyro.

"It looks fine down," Loz said gruffly, deciding to be difficult. After all, Yazoo still smelled like stupid human hormones from that stupid red-head. Loz was still pissed about that, but more at Kadaj than anything.

Yazoo pouted. "C'mon, Loz. Please?" He turned around in front of Loz, lifting his long hair invitingly. It looked so soft... and shiny... and pretty...

Loz sighed and dug his fingers in. Five minutes later Yazoo was sporting a long braid, tied neatly at the end with a little leather bow. "Thanks," Yazoo said softly, patting Loz's arm. Loz coughed and nodded, face a shade of violent red. For such a manly looking guy- er, vampire- he sure was easy to manipulate into doing girly things.

"You two make me sick," Kadaj remarked from his position at the window, checking out the grounds around the warehouse. They were probably going to settle in there for the day, find a little room and hole up there. Home was too far away by now to chance making it there before sunrise, he decided. Behind him, Yazoo and Loz ignored him and continued... their weirdness. Jeez, Kadaj really had pulled the short straw as far as family was concerned.

After a while, when Kadaj had had enough of the weird semi-flirtations between the idiots, a strange feeling passed through him. It was strange because not only did he usually not feel anything feelings at all, but it was strange because-

Someone was sensing them. Oh, shit.

"Shut up." Kadaj ordered, hand raised. Loz looked up from where he was picking a stray bullet from Yazoo's neck, eyes wide.

"What is it?" Loz asked in a loud whisper, afraid to talk any louder. Yazoo was perfectly still under his fingers, alert and ready to move.

Kadaj spun around, teeth bared. "He's found us."

---------------------------------------------

"OWIE OW OW OW OW OW!" Rude frowned down at the red-head he was dabbing with antiseptic.

"Don't overreact," he said simply, continuing his administrations. The chains had made quite a mess of Reno's wrists, seemed vampires weren't really concerned about having non-chaff chains.

"I'm not! It hurts!"

"Yes, you seemed to notice it a lot when you had a silver-haired girly-boy between your legs," it was a low blow, and Rude knew it, but he couldn't help it. He had no reason to be this angry at the other man, but he was. He stabbed antiseptic into one of the deeper wounds and almost smiled at the other's wail of pain.

It had been a long walk home from the warehouse district, they would have never made it to the car in time; though Rude did intend to go back and get it as soon as he could safely.

The darker man ignored the howls of his partner and concentrated on trying to figure out what exactly had happened.

Three vampires. Check. Wanted info about the Lithen Monks. Made sense. Kidnapped Reno. Made reasonable sense. Tried to rape him. File cannot be accessed as it is considered a threat to the system, taking precautionary measures . . . . deleting. File deleted. Would you like to empty the recycle bin? Emptying recycle bin. Kidnapped Reno. Made reasonable sense. The dark man had the strangest feeling he was going in circles.

There had to be something he was missing. Why search for the Lithen Monks HERE of all places? They were far more numerous in Eurasia. How did they know to kidnap Reno? Why were they traveling together? Everything he had ever heard about vampires suggested that they were solitary creatures, why would three who clearly didn't get along travel together? There had to be something . . . there had to be . . .

"Uh, Rude, that's my elbow and it's fine," Reno called his attention back to the task at hand, which happened to be disinfecting Reno's uninjured elbow.

Under normal circumstances he would have run all of his ideas past the other man, checking for flaws in his logic, seeing if he had reached the same conclusions, and checking what to do next, but right now he was unreasonably angry with the red-head. So he ignored him.

Knowing it was unreasonable didn't help. In fact, it made him grumpy which made him want to ignore him more.

--------------------------------------

Rude was so. Freaking. Weird.

Usually the guy was totally cool. In fact, there was no one Reno would rather spend his day with, all things considered. They were like yin and yang, in some queer sense- Reno was loud and melodramatic and sexy, Rude was calm and quiet and supplied Reno with liquor. The only flaw in their mechanic was that Rude was just inherently cooler than Reno was, no matter how hard the red-head tried- and trust him, he tried. The man was always smirking or... saying something cool and collected.

Because that's what Rude was. Cool and collected.

Except now he wasn't.

Reno could understand that Rude wasn't the happiest with him. He had gotten himself kidnapped and tortured, making Rude have to come and rescue him, which was probably a pain in the ass. Reno would have to thank the guy when he had a chance. But there had been other times when Rude had had to save his ass- but Rude had never been... mad. And there was no denying that he was- Reno was pretty good at sensing what people were feeling, and anger was dripping off of Rude like water from a dishrag.

Reno didn't like it.

"Okay," Reno said loudly, yanking his arm away from Rude and his evil antiseptic. "You need to... stop emitting angry rays, dude." He turned around, trying to meet Rude eye to eye, maybe dispell some of the weird, quiet tenseness that had fallen between them. Reno scowled at Rude's sunglasses, unable to meet the darker man's eyes directly. "You got a problem?"

The line of Rude's mouth thinned, the only reaction Reno could see in the dim lighting of Rude's apartment. He didn't say anything, but set the cotton swab down on the coffee table. He leaned back into the couch, away from Reno.

Reno could tell when he was being ignored- and being a redhead, he didn't take dumb shit like that too well. Especially from Rude, who he had presumed was above petty things like that. "If this is about you having to save me from those freaks-"

Rude turned towards him almost too quickly, his eyes flashing above his sunglasses. "I really shouldn't have, is that what you're saying?"

Reno sat back, eyes slitted. "What?! They were vampires, Rude. If you wouldn't have saved me, I would have been meat."

"If I hadn't saved you," Rude said calmly, though his voice was cutting, "You would have been screwed against a wall. You looked like you were enjoying it, though-"

Reno saw red, his arms akimbo as he stood up as quickly as his body would allow. Was that what Rude thought? Did he think he really enjoyed that shit, being tied up and manipulated against his will? "You sick asshole," Reno hissed, "If this is your way of asking for thanks- screw you, Rude." He turned sharply, banging his calf really, really hard on Rude's coffee table. Shit, yet another injury to add to tonight's list- on top of the emotional stress from Rude, his night was topped off. Reno didn't chance a look backwards as he stormed across and out of Rude's apartment, slamming the door as hard as he could behind him.

He didn't need Rude, whatever his problem was. First thing in the morning he was hunting those vampires by himself, partner or not.

--------------------------------------------

Sephiroth sat perfectly still on his bed (Zakarie would be pacing the room, but he didn't allow himself to indulge in such . . . human actions) mind racing.

What were they doing here? Last he had heard they have been banished to somewhere in Africa and were creating chaos amidst the hyena population. There was no reason for them to come here. None! Perhaps he and Zakarie should leave.

Even as he thought it he knew he would never do it, even if it was the best plan in the entire universe. That would be running away, and he was Sephiroth. Sephiroth didn't run! Sephiroth laughed maniacally while he slaughtered your family and burnt down your home town . . . for some reason that particular metaphor gave him a funny feeling inside. As Zak would say, whatever.

There was a reasonable solution, he just had to have enough quiet time to find it.

A quick glance at the clock told him he had about an hour until Zak usually woke up, though he might stay in bed longer just so that when the human woke up he would find himself in the embrace of a 'sleeping' vampire and would struggle to break free of arms that tightened around him in 'sleep' and perhaps 'accidently' ended up somewhere inappropriate.

Oh Jenova, he was beginning to understand Zakarie enough to predict what he would do! What was the world coming to! No, no, surely it was just a mistake. He must have drunk some bad blood, maybe a hippie gone into hiding for a couple decades. Or even worse, a teenager on some new age substance. Drat it all, he tried to be more careful what he put into his body, but you could never tell these days! People in nice Armani business suits were injecting themselves with substances that would be more at home taking stubborn stains out of carpets. Jenova have mercy, he was even going off on TANGENTS. He made a mental note to make sure to blood test his victims before consuming and turned his mind back to the problem at hand.

There had to be an acceptable solution.

There had to had to had to be! This was the last thing he needed! First Zakarie brought home a human, then it turned out there were Lithen monks after the human, now . . . Sephiroth froze even more, eyes widening. Lithen monks after the human. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way to solve all of his problems.

------------------------------------------

By morning Tseng was pretty sure that this mission was going to be a hell of a lot harder than he had initially expected.

Vampires, going by his experiences, were not the smartest creatures. Vain, powerful, and usually not thinking past their next kill- it was never hard to detect them and take them out, especially with his skills. Tseng smirked to himself. Yes, he had mad skills.

...but apparently his prey's skills were even... madder.

There was definitely a presence- it was strong enough that he had been able enough to track it across the city to the graveyard he was crouched in- ha, a graveyard. Cliche much? Anyway. Once he hit the graveyard- bam, it was like he was getting nothing. He sighed, pressing a finger to his forehead as he tried to concentrate. Now would be a great time to just find the damn nuisances and take them out, while the sun was shining and they posed no threat.

Tseng frowned and kicked a little gravestone. Dammit, this was so aggravating. What would Rufus think if he took any longer? Tseng had a mighty fine reputation to upkeep, after all-

"Okay," Tseng murmured, stopping in his tracks. A pang of something hit him, familiar and pressing. A vampire? He glanced around, seeing nothing in the early morning light. The place was huge, and there was not a soul about- well, a living soul, anyway. Besides, it wasn't like a vampire could just wander around in the day. He was being silly. Silly, silly Tseng.

Tseng continued his stroll, senses high and mind alert. A rabbit nibbled on some grass as he passed, looking at him cutely. Shit, this was getting lame. He wanted some action!

"I see you're alone," A voice said, taunting. Tseng spun around, gun at the ready. Where he had pulled the gun- even he didn't know. But it was there and cocked and that was what mattered.

A bright pair of green eyes blinked as they stared down the barrel of his gun, blinking repeatedly.

"Reno," Tseng moaned, restraining the urge to pistol whip the dumb bastard. Jeez, this was NOT what he needed, some halfwit impeding his progress. "Why the hell are you here?"

Reno smiled tentatively, pulling down Tseng's gun. A brave move, considering Tseng was a little trigger happy. "Uh, hey," Reno said offhandishly, fingers wiggling in a little 'hi' gesture. "I, uh... I want to help you. Find the vampires."

"No." Tseng didn't even need to think about it. He put his gun in his hip-holster, the other hand smoothing his hair back. "Go home to Rude or something, Reno. I don't need an idiot like you screwing up my pace." He turned his back to the red-head and started a brisk walk.

Oh, god. Reno was jogging to catch up.

"Hey now!" Ignore him, Tseng. Ignore him. Reno kept talking, oblivious to the fact he was like, ten seconds from being bitchslapped into a mausoleum. "Fuck Rude, man. I can keep my own- I just want to go along with you. I won't be any liability or nothing. Swear."

Tseng didn't answer. He didn't deal with annoying things too well, beyond shooting them, so his next instinct was to ignore, it seemed.

Reno seemed to take this as a "welcome to the team".

---------------------------------------------

A/N: Um . . . STILL SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT? –runs-


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: We dun own, would be nice, and when SqaureEnix brings out that new Zack figure BAM! I will own it . . . but not yet –tears-

A/N: I think we're getting better on the timing thing . . . we're not SUPER SUPER fast but I think we're getting closer to not SUPER slow . . . it's a process. Thank you all for your reviews!!!! –hearts-

Aki: I'm glad I don't only amuse myself with game refrences XD

arelente2: More RenoRude in this chap!

kazuhiko: Don't worry, I'm enjoying this fic way too much to give it up XD and I hope there will be a lot lot lot more of Seph, Zak and Cloud in the future, they are my fav characters, unfortunately my co-writer prefers reno, so we try to balance it XD

WhiteWolfCub: Meep, continuation continuation!

Aeiradne: Updated! –heart-

akaruy: Thanks!

CheekyAmericangrl211: Thanks for the review! Have an update!

String-home of Tolea: I knew people were going to forget what they had said TT I will try to keep updates to a more . . . regular? pace in the future

Sabith: Thanks for your review! Enjoy!

SilverMau: Thanks! I hope you continue to enjoy our fic

Toons: I am –sad face- It's hard to coordinate two schedules to have time to RP sometimes . . . oh well, we will try our best!

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Reno was nowhere to be found.

Normally this wasn't a problem, or even a cause for concern, as long as sun was streaming through the windows, but today it was defiantly an issue. He hadn't meant to make the other angry, it was just . . . the idea that anyone had laid a hand on him was bad enough, add to that even the slightest hint that he might have _enjoyed _it and you had the secret the Germans had searched for. The key to the emo nuclear bomb. Well maybe the Germans didn't care about the emo part . . . but that was SO not the point.

The point was he knew deep, deep, deep down beneath his stylish shades that Reno hadn't been enjoying it any more than him. But it was _really_ deep down. And _really really_ hidden. Like under the couch cushion hidden. You never found something once a couch cushion had claimed it.

The other part of the point was that he had to find Reno before the red-head got himself into trouble by doing something stupid. Like hunting for vampires. Or, forbid it, going after Tseng! No, no, Rude shook his head, Reno maybe rash but no one was that stupid. So it was vampires. The dark man frowned. Without Reno's heightened senses there was no way for him to track down vampires, especially in broad daylight when their powers would, theoretically, be in a latent form. No, he would have to find a way to track Reno (He'd ripped off the homing beacon that was previously planted on him when he'd found out about it, which was all the more depressing because he had thought to check his shoes as well as the coat with the obvious one and had found them both).

So it would be tracking Reno who was tracking vampires. Perfect.

The armory took up the area of the apartment that a woman would most likely have used for shoes, clothes, or make-up. The walk-in closet, secured against intruders by a padlock that any woman with any sense and equally nice clothes might have used. Pradas and Uzis needed equal amount of protection! Though one was much cooler, and prettier, and funner than the other. No telling which Rude thought that about, he was, as Reno had said, a weird man.

As it was he didn't get to take the Uzi, or even the mini-uzi (painted pink and a gag gift from Reno last valentine's day), but he did have a lovely collection of knives and stakes he kept especially for vampiric occasions. These along with a set of religious articles, effectiveness yet unproven, went into various compartments in his coat before he left the apartment. In fact many of these traveled with him at all times.

He stepped into the morning sun and took a deep breath. Finding Reno was going to be like finding a spastic, semi-neurotic cat in a cat lady's house. Well, here goes nothing.

---------------------------------------------------

Midday. It was midday and still Tseng had yet to catch whiff of any more vampiric aura. Reno had, on the other had, caught whiff of many a thing. Like the taco he had grabbed when they had passed a Taco Fiesta on the way towards the more decrepit, abandoned part of town. Tseng tried to remind himself that yes, Reno was somehow essential to their organization, and yes, Rufus liked him alive.

And really, Tseng did not want to deal with a pissed off Rude if he actually did end up killing Reno by blunt force to the stupid head. He had a feeling that Rude cared a little more for Reno than the big bald guy let on, and Tseng wasn't about to stick his hand and/or gun into a screwed up mushy-mushy web.

"Hey," Reno garbled, spraying a bit of lettuce onto Tseng's immaculately pressed suit. Tseng bit his tongue and started to count backwards from a zillion. "Is it me, or are we rapidly heading into a less savory part of town? I don't appreciate the way that guy in the pimp coat is eyein' us, dude."

Tseng stopped and looked at Reno. Reno coughed and finished off the last bite of taco, looking wary. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Tseng kept staring, enjoying how it was freaking Reno out. "I didn't know you knew such big boy words, Reno," He snarked, smirking. "Are you afraid? Wanna run back home to big, bad Rude?"

Reno scowled. "I told you I wasn't a liability. I can kick more ass than you and Rude combined." He paused. "With my pinky."

Tseng shrugged and turned around, going back to ignoring Reno. It was true; they were in the most shoddy part of the city by now. Every other building was an abandoned wreck, and those that seemed to be inhabited were boarded up and rimmed with iron fencing. It reeked of fear and crime, and Tseng was smug to feel a little ping of vampiric activity. Predictable fools, they always seemed to believe they would be safest in the most unsafe district of town, like no one would ever venture to expect vampires to run off to the ghetto to hide.

Tseng almost laughed when Reno cringed as a gunshot sounded off in the distance, almost squeaking.

"You wanna split up?" Tseng asked meanly, cracking his neck as he stopped to survey the territory. No man in sight, but he was discounting the blackness of the alleyways.

Reno's lipped thinned. "Sure," He managed, loosening his shoulders and reaching for his stun-gun. "No problem."

------------------------------------------------

Cloud was making whimpering noises as Zak's 'sleeping' hands prowled his body. It was TOO CUTE. He snuggled in closer, rubbing his nose in the blonde spikes. He would have loved to say they smelled like vanilla or something cute, but in all actuality they the kid's hair smelled like sweat and Fritos. Not the most romantic combination in the world.

"Zakarie," Seph's voice was lower than usual, something was soooo wrong. With a sigh, the black-haired vampire sat up, dragging the boy unto his lap in the process.

"YOU WERE AWAKE THIS WHOLE TIME?! YOU PERVERT!" The kid was just WAY too cute.

"What is it, Seph?" he asked, petting the blonde's spikes as the kid attempted to wriggle free of him with all the success of a newborn kitten.

Seph glanced at the boy in his arm's, the look in his eyes was calculating, "Perhaps we should talk somewhere else."

NOT GOOD. NOT GOOD AT ALL. Seph would only care if he talked in front of Cloud if he didn't intend to kill him. At first glance this would seem like a good thing, but with Sephiroth the fact that HE didn't intend to kill him didn't mean that he planned for the boy to live. In fact it was probably quite the opposite.

"Stay here, Spike," Zak stood up and gently tossed the blonde back on the bed. The kid yowled like a cat when he was tossed, hmmm, what kind of noise would he make when-

"Zakarie." Oh yeah, serious business. Zak followed the silver-haired man out of the room, swallowing nervously. There was no way he could let Cloud be harmed, even if one of them wasn't doing the harming. His Blood Oath would not allow it. How the other man would react if and when he found out about that though . . . things were going downhill fast. At this rate he wouldn't even be able to sleep with the kid before he had to do something heroic and cool. Oooo, maybe they could have victory sex! Or maybe-

"Zakarie!"

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Zak pouted.

"You stopped walking, started leering and started to drool," the other vampire glared at him, it doesn't take a genius. Now come on," he opened the door to the study and strode in.

-------------------------------------------

Cloud sat on the bed, paralyzed. He had gotten past a few stages of panic, the first being:

"This is a dream."

Well, it wasn't, so he moved onto the next stage:

"TRY TO ESCAPE."

He was also pretty sure that wasn't an option, as his belief in vampires had just reached an all-time high and if he tried to escape... they might kill him. He was positive that the silver-haired guy was out for his blood in one way or another, and the only thing stopping him was the sexual pervert who had kidnapped him. Cloud looked at his hands, curled up the soft velvet of the bedspread.

So, he was pretty screwed, all things considered. And what was he supposed to do? Sit around and wait to be killed? He laughed, his voice bitter. He scanned the room, looking for any signs of escape, even though he had reckoned that wasn't too great of an idea. Might as well die trying, right?

Wait, was that a diary?!

Cloud had a feeling that his ADD was proving to be a bad thing in this deadly situation, but there was an open tome visible in the dim lighting of the room, sitting on a large, dusty looking desk. Now, it could have been a normal dusty tome, but he had a pretty good feeling that this was a tome of the 'I hold secrets please read me even though I am full of stuff my owner does not want anyone to see' variety. Cloud rolled off of the bed slowly, alert. He didn't really want to be caught reading the diary, especially if the only person who wanted him alive, the Zak guy, was the owner. He crept quietly over to the desk, heart racing. He had to blow a thick layer of dust from the book once he reached it, but once he did he could read what was written quite clearly.

"I could really go for a smoothie," The book read, "But Sephiroth said no."

Cloud stared, but the words didn't make themselves any smarter. So he read on, the situation feeling very surreal.

"I also saw this cute blonde the other day. He was all 'I am dazed and really don't know what I'm doing'-ish. It was pretty hot. Maybe I'll make Seph come to this part of town more often..."

Cloud blinked. Cute blonde?! Him?! He flipped to the next page, eyes wide.

"Dear Diary," It read dramatically, Cloud's fingers skimming along the lines. "Tonight... I got a smoothie."

Jesus. Cloud's mouth dropped. He had been kidnapped by an idiot.

But he was an interesting idiot, so interesting that Cloud kept reading. And reading. And reading. And he didn't even notice when the door opened, but he did notice when a strong hand spun him around by the wrist.

-----------------------------------------

Kadaj paced the room angrily while Yazoo and Loz played with cootie catchers in the corner. He hadn't expected Sephiroth to be here at all, this could mess up their entire plan.

"Kadaj, you're going to give yourself grey hair," Loz said. The younger spun to glare at the older man.

"My. Hair. IS. Grey. Just. Like. Yours," he hissed.

"It's just a figure of speech," Yazoo put an arm around the watery-eyed Loz.

Kadaj spat like an angry housecat and resumed his pacing.

It wouldn't be easy for Sephiroth to control them, not anymore. Even Loz, through some miracle or fluke, or maybe the powers just liked crybabies, had attained a master level. And together they were probably a match for their creator, if not a greater power. Sephiroth was too smart to try to fight them all at once though, and Kadaj wasn't sure they were strong enough to best him individually, especially since he had no idea of if the man had gained any extra powers since they had last seen him more than a century ago, it seemed likely.

"I don't see what there is for you to worry about," Yazoo had finally distracted Loz with shadow puppets on the wall, the older man was clapping frantically as Yazoo made a shadow bunny hop across the wall, "He has no reason to seek us out if we don't do anything to him."

"He has no reason not to!" Kadaj growled, "What if he has gained another master level and seeks to bring us back under his control? What if he worries that we could be more powerful than him and decides to kill us?! What if he-"

"You are totally over-reacting. If we wanted us dead, he would have been here by now," Yazoo said simple, making two shadow monkeys play paddy-cake for the enraptured Loz.

"It's _day_, Yazoo. Even he can't travel in the middle of the DAY."

"Minor details," the older man shrugged.

Kadaj through his hand up. Why did Jenova punish him with these two? He would have left decades ago if they're powers weren't complimentary. Just being in the same building increased his powers by 25 each. It was enough of a difference to keep him near the two, unfortunately for his sanity.

There had to be a way to keep Sephiroth out of the way. Despite Yazoo's unrelenting confidence, he would try to come after them. Why was this town so difficult? First Lithen Monks, then Sephiroth . . . He froze. There may be a way after all.

------------------------------------------

After a while, Loz sat back, bored. Kadaj was thinking- he knew this because the younger brother was pacing about, looking more annoyed than usual. He wanted to ask what he was thinking, almost, because Loz was a little worried about their situation, but no good could come of that. Kadaj would snap his head off the second he opened his mouth...

"Loz," Yazoo nudged Loz, making the larger man look up from his shallow musings. "Loz, let's just get some rest." He smiled warmly, flicking his hair over his shoulder. Loz reached out a hand to touch it, but stopped himself halfway. Yazoo's smile spread.

Loz rumbled something under his breath, looking discontent. Here was Yazoo, trying to butter him up, as always.

And, as he melted under the hand Yazoo was running up his arm, it was working.

"I don't want to rest," Loz grunted weakly, long legs spreading out slowly, almost of their own will. Yazoo leaned against him, insinuating himself under Loz's solid arm.

"You have to rest," Yazoo replied, voice calming. "I have a feeling that things may get hectic soon." He shrugged Loz's arm around his shoulder, knowing his brother wouldn't mind. "Besides, it's daylight." He yawned delicately. "I'm going to sleep here, okay?"

Loz shrugged. "Whatever you want," He said in a gruff tone, but Yazoo knew it was the same tone he used when he talked to kittens. After a while Yazoo was sleeping, all curled up against him and almost snoring, if the soft rumblings he was making could be called that. Loz couldn't find it in him to sleep- he felt too troubled, and by the way Kadaj was still pacing... he had every right to feel that way.

He just hoped Kadaj let them know what they were in for.

--------------------------------------

Zak rubbed the back of his head as he left the study. This was totally not good. Very very very not good. For him and his sex toy . . . er . . . Cloud. Normally Seph's plan would have him hopping up and down in excitement, but with Cloud as part of it the joy seemed to leak out.

How would he break it to the kid? How do you tell someone that their beloved's friend wants to use them for live bait and that their beloved can't do much about it because it's the best option they have pretty much? And how do you make sure that said person doesn't run away from you forever while being used as live bait?

He opened the oak door to his room quietly, trying to rearrange his thoughts. He stopped just inside the door, a smile twitching on his mouth.

His first thought was, 'JACKPOT!', this was followed by the realization that the kid's pants were still on, even though he was leaning over the desk temptingly. Tears. His second thought involved what the kid could be reading on his desk when the only thing he kept on there was . . . Oh. . . Wait. HEY! He swept across the room and grabbed Cloud around the waist, drawing him against him.

"Are you invading my privacy? Cuz that sounds like an invitation for me to invade your . . . _privacy_." The last word was purred into the blonde's ear.

The kid made a sort of strangled gurgling noise.

"What was that? 'Please take off my clothes'? Sorry, babe, but that's just gonna have ta wait," another gurgling noise, "I know you're eager, but we have a bit of a situation."

He turned the blonde around and held him semi-loosely, "You see there's these bad men in town, and we need to make them go bye bye before you and I can . . . well you know." Cloud looked like he was about to either choke to death or explode, either would not be cool, but the former would be a lot easier on the upholstery.

He had drawn the kid back to sit on the bed before he said anything.

"I DON'T WANT TO SLEEP WITH YOU! PERVERT! Bad men? WHAT?! I HOPE THEY GET YOU! WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ME? LET ME GO! Wait . . . did I ever finish locking up again? WHAT IF I GET FIRED!"

Zak blinked, "Er, if you get fired it's really not that big of a deal."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! HOW WILL I LIVE?!"

"Seph and I have tons of money, happens when you put a couple hundred into a bank when it's founded and then forget about it for a couple decades. We can put you support you easy! Even if you don't want to be turned, we'll keep you here!" he rubbed his cheek over the kid's spikes.

Cloud pulled his head back and stared at him, "My entire life sucks."

-------------------------------

Somehow Cloud had been poked and prodded and cuddled back to the bed, where he was unceremoniously thrown.

"Look here, kid," Cloud looked up at the Zak-man with wide eyes, his hands curling helplessly on the bed. Zak put his hands on his hips and tried to look authoritative, which would have had an effect, had Cloud not been... well, not-paying attention to him. In fact, Cloud was too busy mentally panicking to observe Zak's stunning display of manliness.

"So," Zak continued, totally ignored, "I really want to keep you, kid. Just so you know."

Cloud nodded, numb. 'I am going to die and I have lived a really lame life and I've never had sex and vampires exist and ah ah ah ah...' He began to shake a little. Zak looked on in concern, but somehow resisted cuddling the life out of Cloud. He didn't even give into the temptation to touch the kid. It...was...hard.

"But- will you stop shaking? Cloud? It's making me nervous." Zak laughed uncomfortably, resisting the urge to push Cloud to the bed and tongue all of his woes away. Nothing like a hot make out session to cure the angst, after all. Ho ho. Cloud took a deep breath, calming somewhat, and Zak continued. "You see... well. Seph and I are having this problem, and you can help us out."

Cloud shook his head wordlessly. No way in hell was he helping these freaks out. They were probably just going to kill him-

Zak sat down on the bed next to Cloud, eyes soft. "I know this is all very weird to you."

"That's the biggest understatement ever," Cloud said in a despondent tone, scooting away from Zak. "You just... took me away from my job- my life, and now I'm just... I don't even know you and... You asshole." He stood up, voice shaky and cracking, but was stopped when Zak hooked a finger in his belt loop, holding him still.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm an asshole. But you have to listen to me. I made a few mistakes- if I could do this over... I would have taken you out for a milkshake or something instead of kidnapping you, but as it is the only way for you to stay alive is to help us." Zak gave a wry smile, feeling a little better when Cloud sat back down. "Seph was hard to persuade as it was, so..."

Cloud wrapped his arms around himself, wearing the saddest look Zak ever saw anyone wear. And, being a vampire, he had seen some pretty sad people. Considering he usually killed people and all, and people weren't too happy about that.

Zak sighed and laid back on the bed gracelessly, arms akimbo. "Well. Cloud. I... come down here." He reached out a hand and fisted the back of Cloud's hoodie to pull the slight boy down, tugging him against his side. "Let's sleep on it, okay? Who knows, this might just be a dream." It better not, he added silently.

"It better be," Cloud mumbled.

----------------------------------

Reno was proving exceptionally hard to find. Which, considering the man's version of 'hiding' was pretending to be a tree in the middle of a deserted parking lot, was quite surprising.

The dark man glanced up at the sky again. It was around six it looked like. If he didn't find Reno in the next two hours the kid would probably be eaten by vampires.

He had gone snooped around every abandoned building he could find and had started moving into the warehouse district and still there was no sign of him. He hoped the red head had managed to find Tseng, the older man had a reason not to kill him, even if it was a small one, the rest of the world had none. Come to think of it the rest of the world probably had a 'Top 10 Reasons to Kill Reno" list.

Hmmm, there had to be more reasons to keep him alive. Let's see . . . Reason one, he killed vampires and vampires were evil so thusly he was a good guy. Wait . . . had Reno ever actually _killed_ a vampire? A long though session, during which he finished checking two blocks of buildings, resulted in the answer that no, Reno had not, in fact, ever killed a vampire.

Okay . . . Reason one version two, he was on the side of good. There, nice and ambiguous and totally true. Reason two, he . . . oh come on, there had to be a reason two (another block down). He . . . made good grilled cheese sandwiches. True, it was the only thing he could make, but they were good. Reason three-

These musing carried Rude through a large portion of the warehouse district and up to dusk. The sky had begun to turn electric blood bath and lava lamp, Reno's words, the man could work for Crayola, and there was still no Reno. Rude adjusted his sunglasses, and continued on. With his luck the other man would be waiting for him back at their apartment, but he couldn't take the chance and go home quite yet.

The sun had just sunk beneath the horizon when Rude heard gunshots and a feminine scream.

"Reno!" he ran toward the sound.

---------------------------

"YOU FUCKER!" Reno yelled, falling against an alley wall. Shit! Had that- Tseng had just- "YOU JUST SHOT MY LEG YOU SUNNOFA-" Whatever else he was going to say dissolved into a little howl of pain. He scrabbled to stay upright, but he fell over anyway, a heap of hair and wrinkled suit and blood.

Tseng lowered his gun, eyebrows furrowed. "Reno." Well, he hadn't been expecting that. He had just been walking into an alley, when something had jumped him.

The something being Reno, apparently. Didn't the dumbass know that Tseng was the best shot in the order?

"Why did you jump out at me?" Tseng asked lowly, smoothing his gun into his hip holster and leaning down to get a good look at Reno, who was lying in a fetal position on the filthy alley-way ground. Shit, he had gotten the kid good, too- right in the meat of the thigh. The blood was already pooling past where he was squatting, Tseng noted distastefully. There went a good pair of shoes.

Reno didn't answer his question, opting instead to cry a little. Tseng stood up. Apparently he had gotten a few more hits in then Reno was showing, by the way the man was curling up on himself. Members of the Order were used to pain- it took pretty much to break any Lithen Monk.

"I thought you were the vampire," came Reno's voice, tiny and in pain but still angry, very, very angry. "You came creeping into the fucking alley like you had some kind of agenda, it's almost pitch black-" His voice erupted in a hiss. "I'm going to die."

Tseng's mouth thinned. "You might." And what a loss it wouldn't be, really.

Reno tried valiantly to sit up, but it was futile. His arms were shaking too bad to really offer any support, but he did manage to roll over, facing the wall. He didn't want to see Tseng's smug face as he died, he didn't need that. If only he could get his wits about him enough to tie a tourniquet or something-

No. He was way too weak.

After a minute of two Reno was aware that Tseng was long gone- he was surrounded by total silence, nothing to break his pain but the pumping of his veins, leaking out blood all over. He could feel the stick of it rolling over his skin, everywhere... God, he was going to throw up.

God, he was going to die.

Reno stared at the wall, eyes wide and hands clutched tight at his sleeves.

-------------------------------

A/N: We actually had a little more written, but this seemed like a great place to end the chapter. Reviews get updates quicker! 3 Yes I'm mean, I know.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Dun own – there short sweet and to the point

Toons – Of course he does! Who wouldn't!

Atsukikomi – Update for you!

1wngdng – He doesn't die, dun worry. He's just a sissy

Ashyx – Zak is his own special warning XD

KaoruKina – I don't think the rating is going to go up, sorry XD and I don't know if Seph will get anybody . . . but maybe

Aura of Twili – Zak is the weirdest character ever and he needed a diary to reflect that –nods sagely-

WhiteWolfCub – Of course continuation!

CheekyAmericangrl - XD erm . . . no . . . but how about an update

String-home of Tolea – No need to worry about him, he's too stupid to die

Aki – One has to weigh the good and the bad. Good Zak Bad Everything else. Does the god outweigh the bad? I think it does

Sabith – Here you go!

itachi1lover – I guess he doesn't have to reeeeeally, but why not

CheshireCat o.Oo.O – XD I'm glad to know we keep attracting new readers! Yeah new readers!

SilverMau – Your welcome!

---------------------------------

". . . Reno." Rude reached, carefully rolling the whimpering ball toward him.

"Huh? RUDE?! RUDE!" said whimpering ball was now clinging to his neck and . . . was he . . . sobbing?

"Why are you lying in an alley?" the taller man wasn't quite sure how to handle this Reno and opted to keep his hands at his sides and stand there. The red head suddenly stiffened and grabbed his leg, falling back to the concrete with a thud.

"Rude, I'm . . . I'm . . ." he turned huge watery eyes toward the other man from the most pathetic position Rude had ever seen.

"You're what?" Rude had adopted the standard 'this chick I don't know ran up and started crying and I think if I touch her she will explode and get my shoes messy' stance.

"I'm gonna . . . _die_," the last word was a high-pitched sob.

". . . what?" You couldn't see it, but Rude blinked a couple times before speaking.

"I'm going to die! Don't you care?!" Reno was absolutely hysterical now.

"Why are you going to die?"

"TSENG SHOT ME! I don't know how much longer I have," he sniffled, "So . . . before I . . . you know . . . I . . . I want to say . . . Rude, I . . . I l-"

"Reno, is this the shot you are talking about?" he had finally managed to peel the red head's hands from his leg despite the pained whimpers in between words that he continued to get.

"Yeah, but that's not important, I wanted to say-"

"Reno . . . this barely warrants stitches."

"I want to say . . . what?" Reno blinked and looked stupider than normal.

"It's deep for a cut I suppose, but for a bullet wound it's not bad at all. It just grazed the meat of your thigh. It's not even worth taking you to the hospital; they would ask too many questions anyway, we have that magicked goop they gave everyone in the Christmas gift basket."

"What are you saying?" Reno still looked blank.

"That you are going to be fine in probably less than twenty four hours," Rude explained.

" . . . I'm not gonna die?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

". . . oh," he blinked, frowning as his brain tried to catch up.

"Come on, I'll help you back to the apartment." Rude put the red head's arm around his neck and helped him limp away. He'd never admit it, but for just a bit, before he had seen the wound himself, he had felt his blood run cold at the very thought of Reno's death. Good thing the kid was just a drama queen.

----------------------------

Man, it was nice to have such a big, strong guy for a partner, Reno thought pleasantly as he lolled about in the passenger seat of Rude's fancy car, eyeing the darker man as he drove them to his apartment. A big, strong, handsome partner, so nice and... shiny...

"You're my shiny partner," Reno said in possibly the most jacked up voice he had ever spoken in, his voice slurring something horribly. "Shiny, pretty Rude."

Rude said something under his breath, something that sounded a lot like "shut the fuck up Reno". Reno thought that was rather rude. Rude was being rude. He laughed, slapping a bloody hand to his forehead. Hilarious!

"Jesus, Reno, you would think you've never been pumped full of tranquilizers before," Rude snarked quietly, making a sharp left and cutting off a semi-truck. It honked at him, the driver leaning out of the window to flip him the bird. Whatever. Beside him, Reno continued to giggle to himself. Seriously, if the kid hadn't been freaking out so bad from Tseng popping a few into him, Rude wouldn't have given him the shots, but as it was...

"Reno, stop touching my head," Rude gritted out, eye twitching.

Reno fingered Rude's ear, running his fingertip along the piercings there. "But it's so shiny," He said in an awed tone. Rude hoped he wasn't like, bleeding all over his leather seats. Dammit.

"You know what else is shiny, Reno? Your seatbelt."

Rude thanked the gods as they turned onto the street of the apartment.

"Hey," Reno said in an offended tone as Rude stopped the car. "I hope you know that the air tastes purple."

Rude didn't answer. Reno sighed and fingered the shiny seatbelt, clicking it open. Rude opened his door and pulled him out and then- ow, ow, OW. That was sobering.

"Fuck, dude, fuck," Reno blabbered, clenching Rude's arm. "I know I'm on some pretty crazy meds right now, and yes, the air still tastes purple, but that pain is leaking through, man."

Rude hefted him up, frowning. "We're almost there."

"I can't walk," Reno whimpered, stomach heaving. "I'm gonna be sick."

------------------------------

Zak stretched slowly around the blonde in his arms as he woke; he judged the time to be just after sundown.

"Cloudy," he whispered in the blonde's ear, "Spiike. Wake uup."

"Murmph," was the growled response. SO CUTE!

Chuckling, the dark-haired man bit the boy's earlobe lightly, then whispered again "Wake up, babe," low and breathy right in the kid's ear. There was a sudden tensing that let him know that his mission was a success. He could proceed back to base to receive his new orders. Thank you, captain, but I think I will stay out here awhile longer. I quite like the natives.

"This isn't a dream," Cloud sighed dejectedly, "Someone hates me."

"Quite possible, but at least you know it isn't me, babe!" he kissed the blonde's temple quickly and rolled over and out of bed before the boy could so much as squawk.

"Quit doing that!"

The taller man's reply was cut off by the door opening and Sephiroth striding in. Zak felt most of the humor drain out of him, not all of it of course because that was just silly, but most.

"Are you prepared?" green-eyes flicked quickly to the blonde then back to the other man.

"I really don't know about this, Seph," Zak glanced between his friend and Cloud, who was sitting on the bed looking lost and confused and generally making you want to snuggle him within an inch of his life.

"Can you think of anything better, Zakarie?" the other man asked in his of-course-you-can't-because-you-are-a-moron-and-I-am-the-brains-of-the-operation-so-shut-up-and-obey-me voice.

"Well . . . no . . . Can I at least stay with him?" It would be bad enough using Cloud they couldn't leave him alone!

Seph gave that small, almost a frown then nodded. "I don't see how that would hurt anything and it may help in the long run. Now come on, we are wasting moonlight." With a sharp turn the silver-haired man stalked from the room gracefully, leaving Zak to grab Cloud, protesting, off the bed and follow.

-------------------------

"Where are we going?" Cloud asked lowly, decided that walking in total silence for upwards of an hour to possibly his imminent death just wasn't working out for him. Sephiroth was treading before them through the woods, leaving Zak and Cloud to follow him, nervous and silent. Zak kept reaching over to pat Cloud or hold his hand. Cloud kept grabbing Zak because he was tripping on shrubs and shit.

"Well, Seph wants to take you somewhere... advantageous for us." Zak replied in a murmur, grasping at Cloud's shoulder and leading him around a tree stump he would have tripped over. He didn't remove his arm after. "There's this place, under the city. Used to be where Seph lived. Back in the day, you know?" Zak laughed. "Nothing but some crappy ruins right now, though."

Cloud made an uncomfortable noise. Great. Death under a city. That's what was awaiting him.

"You'll... you'll keep me safe, right?" Cloud said almost against his will- the numbness of the situation was wearing away a little, revealing more of the scared, normal teenager that he was. He didn't want to go to some ruins. He didn't want to be part of some psycho's plan. He didn't want any of this.

Zak tightened his grip on Cloud, making his breath hitch a little. Maybe he did want some tiny, tiny part of this.

Under a normal situation, the attention Zak was giving him would be welcome. He was funny, handsome... maybe not so smart, but...

But he was a vampire, and a vampire who was going to use Cloud in some evil scheme. Shit. He didn't win either way.

"I'll definitely keep you safe," Zak said, rubbing the back of Cloud's neck with his palm. "Don't worry, kid."

"Hurry up," Sephiroth called, breaking the mood. "It's almost dawn."

----------------------------

"Would you stop messing around and COME ON!" Kadaj nearly screeched at his brothers.

"We _are_ coming," Yazoo said simply, primping in the mirror while Loz watched, fascinated.

"Not only will it be morning by the time you are finished it will be TOMORROW MORNING!"

"You are exaggerating," Yazoo rolled his eyes and turned away from the mirror.

"Are you ready now?" his younger brother hissed.

Yazoo merely nodded and Kadaj spun on his heel, leaving the warehouse with a huff and leaving his siblings to follow.

The walk to their splitting point took little time, and the youngest gladly bid his two brothers farewell, at the same time cursing that it was them going and not a clone of him. He would be lucky if they did within the same city of what he was told them to, but he didn't have much of a choice.

-------------------------------

Rude watched as Reno lie on the couch, flipping through channels. When the sedatives had worn off Rude had been all for switching to extra-strength Tylenol in hopes of dealing with a more clear-headed Reno, but the red-head had insisted, almost to the point of flailing and crying, that he would just _die_ without anything stronger.

"That's so SAD!" sudden blubbering from the couch drew the dark man's attention away from his thoughts.

Reno had buried his head in one of the throw pillows and was sobbing his heart out. A quick glance at the TV revealed the reason to be a discovery channel documentary. Something about a baby seal. With a long suffering sigh Rude switched the channel to some kids cartoon show.

"Why won't fluffy wake up, mommy?" some badly animated character was saying. The crying started with renewed fervor with the addition of mumbling.

"What are you saying?" he knew he was going to regret asking, but the kid was just bawling, what else was he supposed to do?

"I HAD A FLUFFY!!!!" Reno raised his head from the pillow, "HE WAS A CACTUS! HE DIIIIIIIIIIIED!"

" . . . " Rude quickly flipped to the news.

"-in the park today. Police have been dispatched to the scene after a jogger scared two men away from what appears to be a bloodless body. Paul Carson has more. Paul?"

Reno blinked at the screen, his eyes gummy, "S'zat?"

Rude nodded, "Vamps." He stood quickly and went to his weapons closet.

----------------------

"Rude, Rude, no way, buddy, no way," Reno protested, fumbling off of the couch and landing on the floor in a heap. Rude couldn't be thinking was Reno thought he was thinking! Not when Reno was on the freaking couch, drugged within an inch of his life.

Rude couldn't leave him.

He needed him.

What if he needed another dose of medication? What if he needed a bucket to puke in? What if... Rude was ignoring him stolidly, pulling a gun from his closet. Reno snarled and tried valiantly to stand up, his only thought being "KEEP RUDE HERE". By any means possible.

"Reno, you need to get off of my legs," Rude said calmly, kicking a bit to dislodge Reno's chokehold on his calves. "I need to investigate this lead."

"Not without me," Reno whined, hugging Rude's legs tighter. "We're a team- you can't go out without me. It's against the rules, code of ethic, blah blah." He looked up; his gaze met with a pair of black Armani shades. "Please? Tseng's out there, Rude. I need you to stay here."

A few minutes passed in silence, the only thing making any noise being the sounds of breathing and the television.

"Fine," Rude said, finally. "But get back on the couch. You tore the damn stitches and are bleeding on my carpet."

Reno smiled as best he could and tried his damndest to relocate himself from being wrapped around Rude's legs to being on the couch. But the thing was, he couldn't move. Damn medications. Damn them to hell! He wriggled a bit on the floor, helpless. "Rude, buddy, I can't exactly move. You know. My limbs."

Rude muttered something that sounded like 'elephant tranquilizers aren't meant for humans' and leaned down, frowning. Suddenly Reno found himself hoisted in the air by two strong arms, then tossed roughly to the cough in the next instant.

He tried not to smile like an idiot. Rude was such a pushover. Well, to him. Sort of.

"Scoot over," Rude demanded, pushing at Reno's legs and seating himself on the couch. He set his gun on the table with a sigh- he should really by doing his job, but at the same time... He didn't want to leave Reno. Something about his partner almost dying had kinda scared him- enough to not want to really let the redhead out of his sight.

Reno started to snore, dropping off to la-la land quickly.

Rude picked up the remote and started flipping.

"Brother," Loz whispered, creeping along the deep, dank line of an old, abandoned sewer, Yazoo close behind. "What are we supposed to be looking for?"

Yazoo placed his hand on Loz's back, pushing him gently. "Kadaj told us that we would know it when we saw it."

Loz stopped in his tracks and turned to Yazoo, eyebrows knitting. "Seriously? Is that it?"

With a nod, Yazoo smiled lightly. "Yes. We are trying to find an entrance of some sorts, and Kadaj seems to think it would be in a very old place," He waved around to their surrounding, which were very old indeed. Crumbling stone paved the walls while moss and dank puddles of stagnant matter lined the floors- it was creepy as hell, but a good start in their search. "But it's not so bad, Loz. We get some time to spend together, right?"

Loz blushed, much to Yazoo's amusement. "I guess," He said gruffly, plodding forward.

Yazoo sighed and followed him.

-----------------------------

The park was bordered by the woods on one side and city streets on the other three. It was right on the edge of the park that the old sewers were most easily accessible. Before more complicated ideas of plumbing had come about, ever sewer in the city used to empty itself just beyond the area now called the park. It was here Sephiroth led them. The opening was hidden by years of growth, but was clear to see with vampire's eyes.

The blonde whimpered and clung to Zak, who was practically gushing about how he would protect him and everything would be alright. Everything could very well not be all right, Sephiroth frowned to himself, and didn't the boy deserve the truth in what could be the last day, or night rather, of his life? But he left taking care of the human to Zak and concentrated on his plan.

The idea was that, once under the city, they would split ways. Zak taking the kid to an area Sephiroth suspected the Lithen Monks would be able to feel and taking down his shields. The monks would investigate and see Cloud with him, this would cause them to pursue Zakarie. Sephiroth would also lower his shields, but he would be hoping to attract Kadaj's gang to the same locale. Once everyone was in place he and Zakarie could conveniently disappear for awhile, leaving the monks and other three vamps to fight it out, probably destroying each other.

There was some confusion on whether or not the human would come with them when they fled, from Zakarie of course, but once in the situation he was sure the other would come to his senses and leave the kid behind. Now they just had to get everything in place.

"I think this should do," though unused, the old sewers still held the remnants of water from numerous drips and assorted un-rerouted drain pipes. The water was shallow, though, sticking around the guttered sides of the routes, leaving the middle dry. Sephiroth had chosen a large eight way intersection; the low waters had turned the vast circular route into an arena under the city with access to everywhere. It was perfect.

-----------------------------

"Where are we?" the blonde whispered, clinging to Zak's arm and attempting not to hyperventilate.

"It's just part of the old sewer system under the town," the dark-haired man reassured him, patting his hair.

"Why are we down here? What are you planning? What . . . what is that!" the last was yelped as the kid attempted to strangle Zak's arm and climb into them at the same time.

"It's a rat," the other observed brightly.

"A _RAT?!_ There are _rats_ down here?!" the hyperventilating began in earnest now, with the blonde still attempting to crawl into Zak's skin and hide. Not that the closeness wasn't nice, but it was preferable to have the other party want to be close for . . . other reasons than hiding from furry things that go meep in the night.

"Um, sewer rats. Yeah. They live in sewers," perhaps all of this was going to the poor kid's head.

"_I know they live in the sewer!_ WE should not be in the sewer! With them! ALONE. They're going to _kill_ us!" despite the slight hysteria in his voice, Zak couldn't help think that Cloud was just the most adorable thing ever. How was he not supposed to want to protect someone that was practically hanging from him at the thought of a small furry mammal with a mouth smaller than a quarter?

"Dun worry, babe," he whispered, hugging him close, "I won't let anything hurt you. Ever."

-------------------

Cloud felt like he was going to puke. There were rats, there were vampires, and to top it all off, there were vampires leading him into a tunnel filled with rats. The only redeeming fact of the situation was that the rats were not vampire rats.

So he hoped, anyway.

"I can't see," Cloud noted to Zak, trying to keep his voice a little controlled. He figured that whining about everything really didn't help his situation, and Zak seemed pretty receptive to him, to say the least. He stumbled a bit, wincing as his toe was stubbed on something. Shit, that hurt.

"What?" Zak's voice came from right next to him, making Cloud jump a little, his nerves on end. "You can't- oh. Oh. You can't see in the dark." Cloud shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I'll just have to carry you then," Zak said after a while, obviously having to think about the situation. Cloud opened his mouth to protest, but no sooner did me make a noise than did he find himself hoisted off of the ground and cushioned against a strong chest. He could practically see Zak's teeth glint in a smile. Cloud meeped pitifully.

They set off again with relatively no problem- Zak's arms were surprisingly comfortably, Cloud noted with some humiliation, settling down a bit. The older man's chest rumbled as he talked to Cloud about random things, like how he had managed to make a batch of cookies using only flour and his bare hands. Cloud was duly impressed.

After a bit Zak ran out of things to say about hand-make cookies, leaving only the sound of his walking and Cloud's breathing to echo off of the walls of the sewer. Cloud was surprised that he actually felt... comfortable. Zak was surprisingly soft and warm. Cloud tried not to snuggle into his pecs.

"So, Cloud." Zak said after a while, hopping over a puddle of god-knows-what. "What do you think about being a vampire?"

Cloud changed his mind instantly. Comfortable? Not any more. He squirmed, making Zak tighten his hold on him. "I don't think about it at all," Cloud managed- please don't kill me now, please don't kill me now..."Please don't kill me."

"Hey, hey stop that," Zak said quickly. Shit, he thought. Shouldn't have said anything. "I was just trying to make conversation."

"Yeah, well," Cloud muttered, wrapping his arms around himself, eyes wide in the total black of the sewer. "What... what are we trying to accomplish here?" There. Change of subject. He really hoped that Zak wasn't going to try to turn him into a vampire or something like that- Cloud would have made a horrible vampire- he couldn't even kill the ants in his house. He freckled. Who ever heard of a vampire with freckles? No one.

Zak adjusted Cloud in his arms, shifting him around a bit. He squeezed Cloud's butt a little, figuring he could get away with it in the process. He did. Hoho. "Well, as of now I am trying to emit as much 'I AM A VAMPIRE' aura out as I can. You know, so I can lure your red-headed buddy here, the one from your apartment."

Cloud took a second to think. "Wait. Reno?"

"Yeah, I guess," Zak replied, eyeing a particularly large rat from the corner of his eye. It hissed at him savagely. "I hope you're not too attached to him or anything..."

Kadaj crept around the wharfs, peering over the concrete mini-walls every once in awhile. He was searching for a way into the sewers. Yazoo and Loz were looking for the way that was supposed to be in the park to lure the monks through, he would need a different route to take Sephiroth in via, but so far he couldn't find anything.

It made sense to him that they would empty at least part of the sewage into the ocean, which meant there should be some kind of outlet, right? Well evidently not.

He snarled as he moved around the last bend. How was he supposed to complete his part of_ HIS OWN_ plan if he couldn't even find a way in?! He kicked at a rock in a fit of temper, sending it bouncing over concrete and a lone manhole cover.

Imagine his shock when the ground beneath said manhole cover lit up like a metaphysical Fourth of July.

-------------------------

Rude waited until Reno had fallen asleep before he quietly went to retrieve his guns. There was no way he could just let an obvious lead like that go unchecked. Besides, if he ran into Tseng out there he could shoot him in the leg and legitimately claim he thought he was a vampire. Perhaps a little vindictive, but the man had shot Reno! There was no way he was just going to walk away with that.

He had just reached the door when a sudden thought made him scribble a note for the redhead in case he woke.

Checking out park.

Drugs on table.

Don't leave.

Rude

Short, sweet and to the point. Well, maybe not sweet . . . with an undetectable blush he quickly scrawled a heart symbol over his name and left as quickly as possible.

The drive to the park was uneventful, which was to be expected at just past midnight. He was glad to see the cops had given up the search by the time he arrived. There was no way he wanted to have to protect civilians from the supernatural, he just needed to get in there, kill the vamps, shoot Tseng, and get back before Reno even realized he was gone.

Unfortunately fate has a surprising, almost CHEAT-LIKE ability to role a 20 on a d-10. And poor rude only had his un-magical NOT-CHEATY d-6. The moral is don't let fate be dungeon master. Wait . . . no, that's not the point. Is it? Maybe . . . I lost myself. Switch authors and regroup.

-----------------

This was probably the dumbest vampire Tseng had ever had the pleasure of stalking along a deserted sewer.

"And, well, then I tried to hide the hamster cage from Seph, but that didn't work too well." The vampire was saying in a retarded tone, coddling what appeared to be a frightened-as-hell teenage boy in his arms. "So I had to return them. The pet store never knew they were gone, actually..."

Tseng smiled and licked his lips in anticipation. This was almost too easy- he would just let this doofus lure him to wherever he was taking his victim and kill him there. If he was as strong as he was stupid Tseng might have been facing a problem- but he doubted it highly. This guy wasn't even bothering to mask his aura... he was probably a fresh vampire, a month old, if that.

"Too easy," Tseng whispered, fingering his gun. Too easy.

The first thing Reno noticed when he woke up was that he had fallen asleep while eating a cheeto. Ew. He swallowed muzzily, his face quinching up. That was a sick aftertaste. He blinked a few times, registering the dim light from the tv and the mix of dull pain and medication sifting through his system. Ugh, he felt like shit. He curled up in a ball- aw, Rude had covered him up. He grinned to himself, feeling like a retard.

Wait. Where was Rude? Wasn't he, like, right there when he drifted off?

"Rude?" Reno wavered, his voice doing a funny, I-just-hit-puberty pitchy thing. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Rude? Where are you?"

No one answered. Reno scrambled around, sitting up after a bit of effort. Maybe Rude was asleep...

Yeah, or maybe not. Reno frowned and reached for the note that was lying in plain view on the coffee table, his cheeto-covered fingers leaving little grease stains on it.

"Aw, he put a little heart around his name," Reno observed quietly before settling down to read the important bits of the note.

Four seconds later he was on his feet, seeing red. "That bastard," He hissed, grabbing around for his suit jacket. It was folded neatly on the back of the couch, looking pretty worse for the wear. Reno shrugged it on regardless, gritting his teeth. He half-thought about grabbing the medication- but no, his judgment needed to be clear, not impaired. He could take whatever pain he had to right now, regardless. Rude was being an idiot and Reno had to go make sure he didn't get himself killed. Reno made his way to the door, in a righteous fit.

He grabbed the medication as an afterthought.

-------------------

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews/hit! We were thinking about doing something special for our ten thousandth hit (if we get one before we finish this story –sweat-) So here's hoping!


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